Tokyo Olympics Wrestling competition begins tonight; Adeline Gray set to take the mat

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Tokyo Olympics wrestling competition begins tonight in Japan and will showcase the world’s best freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers. And one female wrestler is looking forward to finally competing after waiting an extra year.

Lakewood, Colorado native, Adeline Gray will take the mat tonight in the women’s freestyle 76 kg weight class. Gray has seen a lot of success over the years. She is the first and only Team USA wrestler to win five career senior world titles. Gray is also the only U.S. woman to win world titles at the senior, university and junior levels. She says the covid-19 pandemic caused her to get creative with her training and not having access to in-person tools was challenging.

“It’s really silly to think that I didn’t lose the muscle, that I didn’t have access to some of the training and the reps that I had in past years. And I think I’ll be okay because I’m a 30-year-old who has had these reps and I’ve trained and had some experience. I don’t think I need as much training as maybe the average athlete, but I do think it’s going to have an effect on my competition,” said Gray.

Adeline will face Zaineb Sghaier of Tunisia. Tonight’s competition is set to start at 8 p.m. Mountain Time, or Sunday morning in Tokyo. You can catch the action right here on NBC. For a full schedule, visit here.