(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Local two-time Olympic winner Sarah Hildebrandt has been named as Assistant National Women’s Coach by USA Wrestling.
Hildebrandt joins the USA Wrestling’s National Teams Department working on the National Women’s Coaching staff, led by National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner and Developmental Coach Jessica Medine Bunker. Hildebrant will be based in Colorado Springs, where the USA Wrestling national headquarters are based.
“I have had a really long career and I’ve gotten the experience of what wrestling has taught me. It has made me so passionate about what this sport can do for people,” said Hildebrandt. “If I can bring a passion and energy in support of their journey, kind of a door handle to open up their own adventure, that is exciting to me. Wrestling has given me so much. The sport has taught me everything about myself and helped me grow as a woman.”
Hildebrandt is retiring as an athlete to focus on her coaching career. According to USA Wrestling, she will help train athletes in the U.S. Senior National Team, resident athletes at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, and U.S. teams in international competitions.
“It is not just what she has done; it is how she has done it. She has been through everything. She was a kid who couldn’t make the National Team and struggled. She made the World Team and struggled. She got hurt. It was then that she realized things, took a pause, and changed,” said National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner. “Because of her experiences, there is not a person on our National Team and around our program that doesn’t respect her. The respect is not just about her accomplishment in Paris; it is how she reinvented herself to become a great champion and a great human being. She will become a great coach.”
Hildebrant attended the Olympics in 2020 and 2024 winning a bronze medal and gold medal respectively. She competed in six Senior World Championships for TEAM USA and was a leader in the program.
USA Wrestling said Hildebrant is excited to work with the U.S. women’s freestyle athletes in their pursuit of success at the World and Olympic level.
“We have an endless amount of potential,” said Hildebrandt. “Everyone can see the writing on the wall. We are coming. Once we get there, we are not moving. There are areas we can talk about, technical things, that we will always continue. For us, it will take some courage to step into some unknown places, to go beyond being second and third, and to become the gold.”
