U.S. receives women’s freestyle draw at U23 World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – The women’s freestyle brackets have been released for the 2024 U23 World Championships with 10 U.S. athletes entered in the field. All 10 Americans will face either a Continental or World medalist in the first round.

2023 Senior World silver medalist Macey Kilty headlines a highly-credentialled U.S. women’s team in Albania. Kilty, who will wrestle both the U23 and Senior World events this week, has drawn 2024 U23 Asian silver medalist Tynys Dubek of Kazakhstan in her opener at 62 kg.

Kilty is a five-time age group World medalist, including a silver medal performance at the 2019 U23 Worlds. Of her seven previous World appearances, she has only failed to medal once—a fifth place finish at last year’s U23 Worlds.

Also competing on both the U23 and Senior World Teams in Albania is current college star Kylie Welker, who is a two-time age-group World medalist and 2021 U20 World champion. Welker’s run at 72 kg begins against Anastassiya Panassovich of Kazakhstan who owns a silver medal from the 2022 U20 Worlds and a bronze medal from this year’s Senior Asian Championships.

Senior National Team member and three-time NCWWC champion Yelena Makoyed is making her World Championships debut at 76 kg against Alina Yertostik of Kazakhstan. Yertostik has a strong track record with bronze medals from the 2024 U23 Asians and 2022 U17 Worlds to her name.

Makoyed has medaled at every international competition she has entered dating back to 2021. This year on the Senior level she earned a gold medal at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix and a silver medal at the Poland Open.

The trio of Amani Jones, Sofia Macaluso and Adaugo Nwachukwu round out the list of past U20 World medalists entered for Team USA. Jones starts her day against 2023 Pan American Games bronze medalist Antonia Valdes Arriagada of Chile at 55 kg. Macaluso is paired against 2024 U20 World runner-up Bertha Rojas Chavez of Mexico at 57 kg. Nwachukwu will face two-time U23 World medalist and current Senior European silver medalist Kateryna Zelenykh of Romania to open her day at 65 kg.

Sage Mortimer, a current Senior National Team member, will take on 2023 U20 European bronze medalist Khrystyna Basych of Slovakia to begin her run at 50 kg. This marks Mortimer’s second age-group World Championships appearance. She was on the 2019 U17 World Team.

Additional Team USA athletes in the mix are Elena Ivaldi at 53 kg, Skye Realin at 59 kg and Brooklyn Hays at 68 kg. First round matchups for each American can be found below.

The women’s freestyle portion of the U23 World Championships will be held October 23-25. Greco-Roman concludes on Wednesday and men’s freestyle begins on Friday. Women’s freestyle action starts up at 10:30 a.m. local time each day. Tirana, Albania, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The U.S. will compete in two groups over the course of the women’s freestyle event. Group one, which starts on Wednesday, is comprised of Mortimer, Jones, Realin, Hays and Makoyed. Group two starts a day later, featuring Ivaldi, Macaluso, Kilty, Nwachukwu and Welker.

Updated brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena. A live broadcast of the event is available for the U.S. market at FloWrestling.com.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com and USA Wrestling’s social media platforms for complete coverage of the U23 World Championships.