Four women's freestyle wrestlers from the United States will take the mat on Saturday, March 14, hoping to secure a spot for America in the Olympics.

Two qualification spots are available at each weight at this weekend’s Pan-American Olympic Games Qualifier. That means you have to make the finals to qualify your country at that weight, as there is no true second placing match.

This is the second leg of the qualification process for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Below you will find a breakdown of the following four weights: 50kg, 53kg, 57kg, and 62kg. I'll attempt to show you the major obstacles in each wrestler’s path to qualifying America for the Olympic Games.

50kg:

Sarah Hildebrandt (New York AC)

Entries

• Patricia Alejandra BERMUDEZ (ARG)
• Kamila BARBOSA VITO DA SILVA (BRA)
• Jessica Anne Marie MACDONALD (CAN)
• Carolina CASTILLO HIDALGO (COL)
• Yusneylis GUZMAN LOPEZ (CUB)
• Jacqueline Del Rocio MOLLOCANA ELENO (ECU)
• Rita Fatima ROJAS CHAVEZ (MEX)
• Thalia Jihann MALLQUI PECHE (PER)
• Genesis Rosmary MILANO OLIVIO (VEN)

Seeds

1. Castillo Hidalgo: 16
2. Hildebrandt: 16

Sarah Hildebrandt was a world silver medalist in 2018, but following a ninth-place finish at 53kg last year, she made the decision to drop down to 50kg. For someone who used to wrestle 55kg on a day before weigh-in, this showed tremendous dedication to transforming her body to optimize her performance on the world stage.

We've seen the 26-year-old twice now at her new weight, and both times she's looked fantastic. The first was in winning the Matteo Pellicone in Rome in January, which is why she is the two seed here. The second was taking both matches in her Pan Am wrestle-off against Whitney Conder in February.

So we've seen her make the weight twice, and give up just nine points across her six matches. Given there's no real-time zone change or much difference in the nutrition resources available in Canada and the United States, there's no reason to believe her weight cut will be any different than the first two times she wrestled it.

Given how America has fared this quad at the Pan Am championships and last year's Pan Am Games, Hildebrandt is a big favorite to make the finals and qualify the weight. Whitney Conder, who Hildebrandt defeated soundly to get the spot here, won the Games easily last August. She teched this weekend's one seed Carolina Castillo Hidalgo (COL), and defeated Yusneylis Guzman Lopez (CUB) 10-2 in the finals.

American won gold at the Pan Am championships in 2017 (Victoria Anthony) and 2018 (Conder), while the championship title went to Guzman Lopez last April. But the Cuban just fell to Thalia Jihann Mallqui Peche (PER) in the first round. Mallqui Peche was silver in 2017, and bronze at both the championships and the Games last year.

Mallqui flipped a 4-1 win from last year's Pan Am Games by Guzman, and then fell to Castillo Hidalgo in the quarters. The Colombian was in the finals in 2018 against Conder but lost 9-0.

Patricia Alejandra Bermudez (ARG) is a two-time Olympian and one of the most veteran wrestlers in this bracket. She's twice won bronzes at the Pan Am Games and has represented Argentina six times at world championships. The most veteran wrestler is 35-year-old Jessica MacDonald (CAN). Her best run came from 2011-13, when she won bronzes at worlds sandwiched around a non-Olympic world title in 2012.

53kg

Jacarra Winchester (Titan Mercury)

Entries

• Samantha Leigh STEWART (CAN)
• Lianna de la Caridad MONTERO HERRERA (CUB)
• Luisa Elizabeth VALVERDE MELENDRES (ECU)
• Zeltzin HERNANDEZ GUERRA (MEX)
• Gabriela Nicole RAMOS DIAZ (PUR)

Seeds

1. Valverde Melendres: 50
2. Montero Herrera: 30

The trajectory of Jacarra Winchester has been pretty incredible to watch. It started in 2014 with a world University bronze up at 58kg, which clearly showed her talent level was high. But it took her a few years to find a weight class but more importantly, find her confidence. It resulted in going from a fifth-place finish at worlds in 2018, to a bronze medal at the Pan Am Championships this past April, to a world title run in September.

Winchester made her 53kg debut in February, shutting out Katherine Shai 5-0 and 2-0 to earn her right to wrestle in Canada. There's no question she has transformed her body as well and is being very disciplined in her weight cut, and that's honestly the only thing that could prevent her from qualifying this weight.

The top two seeds are Luisa Elizabeth Valverde Melendres (ECU) and Lianna de la Caridad Montero Herrera (CUB). This past weekend Valverde Melendres won Pan Ams and Montero Herrera was bronze. With only six women in the weight, it will be interesting if they do two pools of three to separate the seeds or have each person wrestle five matches and have those two meet in the final round.

Valverde has been wrestling well of late, with the Pan Am title, a runner-up finish at the Pellicone, and a seventh-place finish at worlds to be the clear one seed. She was only fifth at the Games, but runner-up at the championships the past two years.

Montero wrestled in the 2016 qualifier as an 18-year-old, falling one spot outside of qualifying. She went on to earn a Junior world silver the next year and a senior world bronze in 2018, defeating Winchester 5-4 in the third-place match. A few months later, though, that one went 9-5 in Winchester's favor at the championships.

Sam Stewart has been trying to claw her way onto the Canadian for years, falling just short several times. She won bronze at University worlds in 2014 and was silver two years later, the same year she won Pan Ams. She has one of the most dangerous throws in the bracket.

57kg

Helen Maroulis (Sunkist Kids)

Entries

• Giullia RODRIGUES PENALBER DE OLIVEIRA (BRA)
• Linda MORAIS (CAN)
• Lissette Alexandra ANTES CASTILLO (ECU)
• Alma Jane VALENCIA ESCOTO (MEX)
• Nes Marie RODRIGUEZ TIRADO (PUR)
• Betzabeth Rebeca SARCO COLMENAREZ (VEN)

Seeds

1. Rodrigues Penalber de Oliveira: 34
2. Sarco Colmenarez: 14

The return of a fully healthy Helen Maroulis should be a very scary prospect for not just the Pan Am region but the world as a whole. After a short training camp and not even being able to train at full strength due to injuries, she won the Pan Am spot over Alli Ragan and Jenna Burkert.

It's unfortunate we won't get an opportunity to see Maroulis take on Kaori Icho, but this weekend should put her one step closer to a matchup with Olympic gold medalist Risako Kawai, who swept the quad and is down six kilos from Rio. That means we could potentially see the 53kg gold medalist face the 63kg gold medalist in Tokyo.

Now that's of course getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but this is Helen's weight to lose on Saturday. Yes, she was off the mat for a while and took some odd losses, but that was in the midst of her dealing with concussions and time off the mat has hopefully cleared all of those up. She still has the potential to be one of the greatest women's wrestlers of all time, which is I think what we see this weekend.

The top seed is Giullia Rodrigues Penalber de Oliveira (BRA), who was second this past weekend and eighth at the world championships. But she got teched by Burkert in the semis of the Pan Am Games, so Helen should have no problem with her. The two seed is Betzabeth Rebeca Sarco Colmenarez (VEN) who just had the best performance of her career with a bronze this past weekend.

If they're split up, the final should be against Linda Morais of Canada. The only real threat to Maroulis this weekend, she won a world University title in 2016 at 60kg and a non-Olympic weight bronze at the same weight that year. She won another world University title two years later and was the world champ at 59kg this past September. That did not qualify her for the Olympics since it was at a non-Olympic weight, hence why we are seeing her here. Morais defeated Burkert in the bronze medal match in Rome.

Your reigning Pan Am Games champ is Lissette Alexandra Antes Castillo (ECU). The two-time Olympian also won bronze medals at the Pan Am Games in 2011 and 2015, creating some good depth at this weight. She went 1-1 at the Pellicone, including a first-round win over Sarco.

Alma Jane Valencia Escoto (MEX) made the finals of the Bill Farrell in November. She represented Mexico at the Pan Am qualifier in 2016 as well as both last chance qualifiers that year. Valencia Escoto trains with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club and is the wife of 2012 Olympic silver medalist Jaime Espinal.

62kg

Kayla Miracle (Sunkist Kids)

Entries

• Lais NUNES DE OLIVEIRA (BRA)
• Michelle FAZZARI (CAN)
• Jackeline RENTERIA CASTILLO (COL)
• Yessica Coraima OVIEDO PEREZ (DOM)
• Alejandra ROMERO BONILLA (MEX)
• Nathaly Josefina GRIMAN HERRERA (VEN)

Seeds

1. Kayla Miracle: 26
2. Nunes de Oliveira: 16

The only American in either men's or women's freestyle who will be seeded is Kayla Miracle. She came up as one of the best prospects in women's wrestling in this country, representing American seven times on age level teams at the world level before making her first senior world team this past year. She has won a Cadet world silver, two Junior world bronzes, and was in the U23 world finals this past October.

The four-time WCWA champion had to beat world bronze Mallory Velte to make the team last year and also took gold at the Pan Am Games. She is currently atop the ladder in what may be our deepest women's weight in the United States.

At the Matteo Pellicone, she defeated one of her primary threats to qualifying when she beat two seed Lais Nunes de Oliveira (BRA) 4-0 in the second round. She also pinned Nunes in the quarters at Pan Am Games. Nunes, a 2016 Olympian, had previously defeated Velte at the Sassari and Pan Am Championships last year.

Jackeline Renteria Castillo (COL) is a three-time Olympian. The 34-year-old Colombian has been one of the most consistent women in the Pan Am region for over a decade. Although she did not place this past weekend, she was second at the Games last year to Miracle and bronze at the championships in 2018. Her best finishes at the world championships were fifth in both 2013 and 2015.

Michelle Fazzari (CAN) was an Olympian in 2016 and won a bronze medal the following year. She won Pan Am golds in both 2014 and 2017. She qualified 58kg for Canada in 2016 and defeated Miracle 6-1 at the 2017 Pan Am championships.

The lack of Yaquelin Estornell Elizastigue (CUB), who has not wrestled since the Pan Am Games, should ease Miracle's road to qualification as the Cuban does own a win over her from 2018.