Leydecker wins world title, clinches team crown for US
Everest Leydecker has yet to wrestle her first college match. At only 19 years old, she is already a senior world champion.
The Iowa freshman won the 55-kilogram title at the 2026 Senior World Championships on Friday at Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, defeating Ukraine’s Nataliia Klivchutska 4-1 in the gold-medal match. Leydecker’s victory also clinched the women’s freestyle team title for the United States.
Both wrestlers were making their Senior World Championships debuts, and the final was a tactical battle from the start. Klivchutska received the first passivity call, and the opening minute passed without a score. Leydecker was then warned for passivity before Klivchutska was called a second time and put on the activity clock midway through the period. Klivchutska failed to score, giving Leydecker a 1-0 lead. Leydecker pulled on the head and worked to a two-on-one as the period came to a close.
Neither wrestler found a lower-body attack early in the second period. Leydecker kept working from the two-on-one while Klivchutska grabbed an elbow, but Leydecker received her second passivity call and went on the activity clock. She did not score, giving Klivchutska a 1-1 lead on criteria.
Leydecker answered by digging an underhook and attempting a throw-by, and Klivchutska was called for passivity and put on the activity clock for the second time with 1:05 remaining. Klivchutska got in on a double-leg as her activity time expired, giving Leydecker the point and a 2-1 lead. Leydecker sprawled to smother the attack, worked to a front headlock and whipped Klivchutska to her back for two exposure points to seal the 4-1 victory.
Leydecker called the title bittersweet. She was pinned in the semifinals at the U23 World Championships earlier this month, and she has her sights set on an even bigger goal next year.
“This is crazy. It was so bittersweet. I wanted to do [U23] gold. I knew I just got caught. I knew I was the best in the world. It’s just so surreal knowing that,” said Leydecker. “I’m still 19. I have another year at U20, and I want to be able to do all three [world titles] in one year. I still got next year to do that. I’ll be back.”
U.S. women’s wrestling head coach Terry Steiner said Leydecker used the setback in Las Vegas as fuel.
“Very confident person. We talked about it after U23s. She got stung there a little bit, and [we] said, ‘We can turn this to gold in a couple weeks, so let’s keep our head in the right place.’ And sure enough, she came in fighting and swinging and just did a great job,” said Steiner. “She wrestled like a veteran at 19 years old.”
Leydecker said clinching the team title for the United States made the moment even sweeter.
“It just makes it even better knowing that that win clinched the team title for Team USA,” said Leydecker. “I was keeping track of it, and I was like, ‘Okay, one more win and we secure it.’ And then Japan won the bronze-medal match, and I was like, now they’re in the lead. But knowing that me winning clinched the title, it’s just crazy. I’ve always wanted to be a team champ on all my age-group teams, and it never came out. But knowing that I won and I helped us win is so huge.”
Leydecker had been doing the math on the team race before she ever stepped on the mat Friday.
“I saw an Instagram post, and then I saw we had 132 and they had 130 going into the last day, and I kind of looked at the brackets,” said Leydecker. “I was like, they only have one wrestler left, so as long as one of us wins, it should balance it out. I’m just ecstatic to know that I clinched it for us.”
Leydecker said she always believed she could win at the senior level.
“I knew I was always good enough, and I never got my chance,” said Leydecker. “But I knew it was always in me, and I know I can beat anybody I go on the mat with. It’s taking every match one by one.”
Leydecker reached the final with a 6-1 win over Japan’s Nagisa Harada in Thursday’s semifinals. Leydecker was positionally sound and controlled the ties throughout. Harada was warned for passivity and put on the activity clock in the first period, and Leydecker got on the board with the activity point when Harada failed to score. Leydecker then secured a front headlock and drove Harada off the mat with 11 seconds left in the period, taking a 2-0 lead into the break.
Leydecker went to work from a Russian tie early in the second period. She nearly got to a go-behind, backed out to a front headlock and drove through for a step-out point to go up 3-0. Harada came in on a head-outside single, but Leydecker countered for exposure points. Harada came out on top of the scramble, but Leydecker reversed her as time ran out to seal the 6-1 victory.
Leydecker knocked off a pair of world medalists earlier in the day. She opened with a patient 2-1 decision over 2022 world bronze medalist Karla Godinez Gonzalez of Canada, then pinned 2023 world bronze medalist Anastasia Blayvas of Germany in the quarterfinals.
Leydecker had a message for those who doubted her chances in a loaded bracket.
“You guys said I had the draw of death. I think you guys lost faith in me. You were like, ‘She’s young, she’ll gain experience,’” said Leydecker. “No, I want the belt. I want the freaking belt. That’s what I’m going home with.”
Leydecker’s international resume was already loaded before this week. She is a two-time U20 world champion, winning her second title in August, and she earned a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships in Las Vegas earlier this month. Leydecker is ranked No. 1 at 124 pounds in HerMat’s preseason rankings and No. 4 in HerMat’s NCAA pound-for-pound rankings.
Steiner pointed out that Leydecker’s international experience already outweighs her college experience.
“She has more wins on this circuit than she does in college wrestling,” said Steiner.
Leydecker’s gold medal came one day after McKendree’s Adaugo Nwachukwu won the 62-kilogram world title with a 12-11 thriller over two-time world champion Nonoka Ozaki of Japan. Leydecker and Nwachukwu gave college wrestling two senior world champions in Astana, and both enter the season as the top-ranked wrestlers at their weights in HerMat’s preseason rankings.
Interestingly, Leydecker didn’t always love wrestling. She said things changed when she won a middle school state title in eighth grade with her father as her head coach.
“It’s going to sound a little funny, but I always liked jiu-jitsu more. I remember one time I drew a red ring with a Sharpie on my leg. I was like, ‘Dad, I can’t go to practice. I have ringworm.’ And I remember he got so mad at me. I think I was in fifth or sixth grade,” said Leydecker. “But in eighth grade, I won my middle school state title, and my dad was my head coach in middle school. I think that’s when I realized I love the sport and I wanted to continue. That year I went to Fargo and won, and that’s kind of where my trajectory started.”
These days, Leydecker can’t get enough of the sport, even after a busy month of international competition.
“I need a little break, but I love wrestling. I’ll go in the room and play wrestle every day,” said Leydecker. “I know I need a break from actively competing and going hard, but instead of going to play a pickup basketball game, I’d rather just go play wrestle. It’s like that to me. It’s just fun.”
Leydecker now heads back to Iowa to begin her freshman season with the Hawkeyes. She joked that a world title might earn her some goodwill in the classroom.
“I’m hoping it’ll make my teachers give me a little more of an extension, because the internet here is not the best,” said Leydecker. “I might have had to email all of them like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, the internet’s out.’ And I don’t think they believe me.”