Zain Retherford’s Supportive Wife Celebrates Mother’s Day With Paris Olympics 2024 Trip

Zain Retherford has qualified for the Olympics and his wife was cheering the loudest while doing so. After the initial scare of losing out to the Mongolian, Tulga Tumur Ochir, Retherford was in dire straits. Competing in the last chance Olympic qualifier, Retherford got the better of Alibeg Alibegov, Abdulmazhid Kudiev, and Sujeet Kalkal to qualify for the Olympics. 

And celebrating his victory was none other than his wife, Julianna Retherford. Taking to her Instagram story, she posted the clip of Zain qualifying for Paris in the 65kg men’s freestyle category. An elated Julianna wrote, “HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ME 🤍🫶🏻 So freaking proud of this guy.”

Julianna implied that her beloved husband qualifying for the Paris Olympics was the best Mother’s Day gift she could have received. Zain’s wife also shared several congratulatory posts in subsequent stories. She also posted the winning moment from Zain Retherford’s qualifying bout. However, this is not the first time Zain has had his wife supporting him. 

Zain Retherford tied the knot with his wife Julianna back in 2021. Speaking about the same, the US wrestler stated that it was his wife who encouraged him to keep going. She supported him through and through in his journey and even asked him to adjust his mindset for the big competitions. This helped Zain to deal with stress a lot better. Needless to mention, Zain tried to follow the same and got incredible results. 

Zain Retherford speaks about his supporting wife

For starters, the US athlete intended to focus on not worrying too much under difficult situations. Giving full credit to his wife, Zain Retherford stated, “My wife has helped me a lot with that and just focussing on being present and on the things that I can control like my effort and my attitude.” Reflecting on the same, he further stated, “I give myself permission to make mistakes as there is never going to be a perfect match, so those things help.” 

Meanwhile, Zain Retherford became the second representative from Penn State to qualify for the Paris Olympics. He will be joining Nittany Lions, Aaron Brooks. He defeated David Taylor back in April to secure a berth in Paris. After overcoming the initial competition, Zain was pitted against the formidable Niurgun Skriabin of Belarus. In other results, Spencer Lee also confirmed his tickets to Paris. Both the wrestlers will next appear in Paris, when the men’s freestyle wrestling will be underway from August 8.