Clarissa Chun

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun was named the 2024 USA Wrestling Women’s Coach of the Year, sharing the honor with Sara McMann. This is the second-straight year Chun has received this honor.

In Iowa’s inaugural season, Chun led the Hawkeyes to a 16-0 record in dual competition. Iowa captured its first NWCA National Duals title, the NCWWC national team title and had six individual national champions, and 12 All-Americans. Iowa qualified nine wrestlers for the 2024 Olympic Team Trials.

In 2024, Chun was also named the NCWWC Coach of the Year, she was given the Trailblazer Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and was named USA Today’s Iowa Woman of the Year.

On the international stage, Iowa’s Macey Kilty and Kylie Welker were both Senior World bronze medalists in October. Kilty and Welker were also both medalists at the 2024 U23 World Championships with Welker winning gold and Kilty claiming silver. At the U20 World Championships in September, freshman Naomi Simon won a bronze medal.

McMann served as the personal coach for Amit Elor in 2024. Elor won the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 68 kg and went on to win the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. McMann was a coach at the training camps in preparation for the Olympic Games, working with Elor and the others.