Chun Named Women's Freestyle Coach at U20 World Championships

IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun has been named a USA Wrestling women's freestyle coach for the 2026 U20 World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia from Aug. 16-23, the organization announced. The women's freestyle competition is set for Aug. 18-21. 

Chun helps lead a women's roster that includes four athletes on Iowa's 2026-27 team: first-years Taylor Whiting (53 kg) and Everest Leydecker (55 kg), second-year Bella Williams (62 kg) and third-year Karlee Brooks (57 kg). 

"I’m incredibly grateful and excited to support not only our Hawkeyes, but an entire roster of talented women at the U20 World Championships," Chun said. "USA Wrestling plays an important role in uplifting women's freestyle wrestling internationally, and I look forward to coaching our athletes as they strive for success on one of the sports' biggest stages." 

Chun, a two-time USA Wrestling Women's Coach of the Year (2024, 2025), has led Hawkeye women’s wrestling to a pair of NCWWC national championships, 12 individual national titles, five individual national runner-up finishes and 36 All-Americans. In 2024, she was also awarded the 2024 NWCA Trailblazer Award and was USA Today’s Iowa Woman of the Year.

Prior to coming to Iowa, she served as an assistant coach for the USA Wrestling women's national team from 2017 to 2021. As one of the most accomplished athletes in international wrestling, Chun was a two-time Olympian (2008, 2012) and took home gold in her first of five Senior World Championships (2008). Her 18-year career at the senior level included five U.S. Open titles and four gold medals at the Pan American Championships.