PARIS app The most unusual day of Sarah Hildebrandtapps wrestling career ended with her earning an Olympic gold medal.
The Granger native and Penn High School alumnus won the 50-kilogram womenapps category on Wednesday, defeating Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba 3-0 in the championship match to become the fourth U.S. woman to win a gold medal.
For a while, she thought she wouldnappt even have a gold medal match.
Vinesh Phogat of India appeared to reach the finals of the 50-kilogram category after three wins Tuesday. But United World Wrestling, the sportapps governing body, disqualified her after she barely missed weight Wednesday morning.
Measures such as cutting Phogatapps hair werenappt enough to shed the necessary weight. Team India said Phogat was 100 grams app about a fifth of a pound app over the weight limit.
Hildebrandt originally thought she had won gold by forfeit. Instead, Guzman Lopez, who had lost to Phogat in a semifinal, was moved up from a bronze medal match.
appThere was a lot of celebrating,app the 30-year-old Hildebrandt said. appIt was very strange. appOh my God, I just won the Olympics.app And then an hour later, it was like, psych, you did not win the Olympics. I was like, appOh, this is very weird.app So there had to be a reset.app
Phogat, who stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in the first of her three matches Tuesday, would have been the first womenapps wrestler from India to compete for a gold medal. Instead, she left empty-handed.
appAs a big weight cutter myself, yeah, I feel for her,app Hildebrandt said. appShe had an amazing day yesterday, did an insane feat and, you know, I donappt think she saw that happening, ending her Olympics like that. So for sure, my heart goes out to her. I think sheapps an amazing competitor, an amazing wrestler and person.app
US men fall in volleyball
Poland rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the United States in the deciding fifth set of the Paris Olympicsapp menapps volleyball semifinals.
The victors roared back from 20-18 down in the fourth and needed two set points to force it to a deciding fifth set, sending the largely pro-Poland crowd at South Paris Arena into a frenzy, with chants of appPolska!app and horns blaring.
French star leads on linksFranceapps Celine Boutier rolled to a 7-under 65 and a three-shot lead Wednesday in the first round of the womenapps golf tournament at Le Golf National, a frequent stop of Boutierapps.
On a course so difficult that only two players broke 70, Boutier rolled in seven birdie putts and chipped in for another birdie to steal the show.
appIappm really over the moon with the way the tournament started for me,app said Boutier, who won her first LPGA major last year at the Evian Championship in France.
Nelly Korda, the gold medalist from the Tokyo Games and No.1 player in womenapps golf, had to push hard to get back to even for the day at 72.
