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How can words do justice to the most incredible sports upset of the year? But more on Helen Maroulis Olympic wrestling triumph in a minute.When I was in ninth grade, I made my way through a wrestling bracket of very good wrestlers only to run into a kid I knew I couldnt beat. In Pennsylvania, we called those kids hammers, and Pennsylvania produces more hammers than anywhere in the nation. Hammers walked onto mats aware of the outcome before the anklets even went on. They WANTED cauliflower ears.This kid was a hammer.When we got to the center of the mat, he gave my hand a death-lock and the match was over before it even began. As he wiped the mat with me, my spirit was broken. He smashed my face and cranked my neck in ways I didnt think were possible. At one point, he clamped me in a cradle and chipped my front tooth... with my own knee.I lost 17-2 that day, but the score didnt matter. When someone grabs ahold of you and dominates the way he did, a little piece of your soul takes a hit. He owned me.Helen Maroulis ran into the ultimate hammer at the Rio Olympics. Saori Yoshida had won 13 straight world championships and three consecutive Olympic gold medals. She basically had been untouched since before the flip-phone era. Yoshida was probably the greatest, most dominant Olympic wrestler ever at that point. Think about how many wrestlers lost to Yoshida at weigh-ins, or the first time she grabbed ahold of them.Whats amazing is that Maroulis walked onto the mat that day and she hadnt accepted the outcome. She withstood the first time Yoshida squeezed her head and her wrists, a moment that had crumpled hundreds of opponents over the years. Maroulis fell behind in the match, 1-0, but then roared back to win, 4-1. As the clock wound down, it looked to me like Yoshida finally had that feeling of knowing the inevitable had arrived -- shed run into someone who would not bend. When the match ended, both wrestlers stayed on their knees, heads buried on the mat, one in agony, one in joy. The ref eventually came over and patted Yoshida on the back. It was time to shake hands and anoint Maroulis as the new world champion.And just in case youre wondering, I ran into that same hammer two years later in a crucial dual meet for my high school team. He took me down twice in the first period and was rag-dolling me for the first two minutes of the match. But when the second period began, I lined up on bottom and he gripped my elbow and my waist, and I felt his chest heave in and out. He was running low on gas, and I wasnt.When the whistle blew, I worked to escape and then felt an opportunity to flip him. I rolled him over and he went to his side. I pushed hard and he slowly eased onto his back, before I felt him mentally pack it in. He felt like I had two years earlier, and like Yoshida must have as the clock wound down at the Olympics. The ref slapped the mat -- Id pinned him.My high school pin was, obviously, exactly like Maroulis Olympic title. Except, you know, not in the Olympics, or on TV, in front of a crowd chanting my name. Shed done something that hundreds of wrestlers couldnt have even imagined, let alone pull off.In that moment, she wasnt just a hammer -- she was The Hammer.More on Helen Maroulis? What it feels like to win a gold medal -- finally?Video ?? Life after making wrestling history?Story ?? The day Helen Maroulis beat an invincible legend?Story ?? Top 10 girl power moments from Rio?Story ?? Five women fighters we want to see in the UFC?Story ?The IMPACT25 is espnWs annual list of the 25 athletes and influencers who have made the greatest difference for women in sports. 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