Olympic Wrestling 2016: Medal Winners, Scores and Results from Thursday

Medals were handed out in the bantamweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions for women's wrestling Thursday at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and the action in Rio de Janeiro was headlined by the history-making performance of Helen Maroulis.

The 24-year-old world champion became the first American woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling by defeating Japan's Saori Yoshida in the 53-kilogram weight class.

Here is a full rundown of the medal results in women's wrestling Thursday as well as a closer look at how the gold medals were decided.

Bantamweight (53 Kilograms)

Gold-Medal Match
Bronze-Medal Matches
Gold	Silver	Score
Helen Maroulis (USA)	Saori Yoshida (JPN)	4-1
Bronze	Bronze Runner-Up	Score
Natalya Sinishin (AZE)	Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas (VEN)	2-1
Sofia Magdalena Mattsson (SWE)	Zhong Xuechun (CHN)	6-0

Maroulis' gold-medal win was special merely for the fact that it was a first for Team USA, but the fact that she beat a legend in the process was perhaps an even bigger story.

Yoshida entered the 2016 Olympics having won three consecutive Olympic gold medals, and she is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most decorated women's wrestlers in the history of the sport.

Despite Yoshida's remarkable track record, Maroulis rose to the occasion on the biggest stage in wrestling, and she broke a lengthy string of dominance in the process, according to ESPN Stats & Info:

Maroulis showed great poise in scoring a 4-1 victory, and this shot of her reaction on the medal podium spoke volumes about how much it meant to her, courtesy of NBCSN:

While Maroulis is the reigning world champion at 55 kilograms, she had to move down in weight to compete at the Olympics, and she was undoubtedly the underdog Thursday.

Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com pointed out that Maroulis' win over the all-time great was reminiscent of perhaps the most famous Greco-Roman wrestling upset in Olympic history:

Sofia Magdalena Mattsson of Sweden took one of the bronze medals, which marked the second in Swedish women's wrestling history and the nation's second at the 2016 Summer Games, as Jenny Fransson was also a bronze medalist in the light heavyweight division.

To round out the podium, Natalya Sinishin continued Azerbaijan's legacy of Olympic success in women's wrestling by winning the other bronze over Venezuela's Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas.

Middleweight (63 Kilograms)

Gold-Medal Match
Bronze-Medal Matches
Gold	Silver	Score
Risako Kawai (JPN)	Maryia Mamashuk (BLR)	6-0
Bronze	Bronze Runner-Up	Score
Yekaterina Larionova (KAZ)	Elena Pirozhkova (USA)	4-3
Monika Ewa Michalik (POL)	Inna Trazhukova (RUS)	6-3

While Japan suffered a bitter disappointment in the bantamweight gold-medal match, it ascended back to the top of the podium in middleweight action, as Risako Kawai beat Maryia Mamashuk of Belarus to win gold at 63 kilograms.

The 21-year-old was in control from start to finish, and she prevailed in shutout fashion, 6-0.

Kawai's victory gave Japan 11 all-time gold medals in Olympic women's wrestling, and she celebrated it in a unique and entertaining way, per Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun:

In the first of two bronze-medal matches, Elena Pirozhkova had a chance to make a huge day for Team USA even better against Kazakhstan's Yekaterina Larionova.

Pirozhkova seemed to be on her way to securing a win when she jumped out to a 3-0 lead and looked to be in firm control of the bout, as Trackwrestling showed:

The American was shocked in the second period, however, as Larionova caught her in a headlock and pinned her to secure the bronze.

In the other bronze-medal match, Monika Ewa Michalik took down Inna Trazhukova of Russia to win Poland's second-ever medal in Olympic women's wrestling.

Heavyweight (75 Kilograms)

Gold-Medal Match
Bronze-Medal Matches
Gold	Silver	Score
Erica Wiebe (CAN)	Guzel Manyurova (KAZ)	6-0
Bronze	Bronze Runner-Up	Score
Zhang Fengliu (CHN)	Vasilisa Marzaliuk (BLR)	8-4
Ekaterina Bukina (RUS)	Annabel Laure Ali (CMR)	5-3

Guzel Manyurova had a chance to bring home the first-ever Olympic wrestling gold medal for Kazakhstan, but she fell short, as Canada's Erica Wiebe won gold in the heavyweight division by a 6-0 margin.

According to Sportsnet Stats, the 27-year-old joined an elite group of Canadian athletes:

The 38-year-old Manyurova entered the 2016 Summer Games as a two-time Olympic medalist, having won silver for Russia in 2004 and bronze for Kazakhstan in 2012.

While she added to her medal haul with a silver, the younger, quicker Wiebe proved to be too much to handle in the final.

Zhang Fengliu of China beat Belarus' Vasilisa Marzaliuk for one of the two bronze medals, while Russia's Ekaterina Bukina took the other.

Bukina defeated Annabel Laure Ali of Cameroon in a narrow 5-3 decision to prevent Ali from winning what would have been the first Olympic wrestling medal ever for Cameroon.

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