Grace Bullen


Grace Jacob Bullen is a Norwegian freestyle wrestler. She is a two-time gold medalist at the European Wrestling Championships and she won a bronze medal for Norway at the 2015 European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Early life

Born in a refugee camp in Eritrea to South Sudanese parents, she moved to Fredrikstad, Norway in 2001 at the age of four. Already at the age of four she took up wrestling in the martial arts club Atlas.

Career

At the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics held in Nanjing, China she represented Norway and she won the gold medal in the girls' 60 kg event. In the final she defeated Pei Xingru of China.
In 2015, she represented Norway at the 2015 European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan and she won one of the bronze medals in the women's 58 kg event. She lost her first match against Emese Barka of Hungary and entered the repechage. Here she won against Valeria Koblova by walkover and she defeated Irina Netreba of Azerbaijan in the bronze medal match.
In 2016, she won the silver medal in the women's 58 kg at the 2016 European Wrestling Championships held in Riga, Latvia. In the final she lost against Nataliya Synyshyn of Azerbaijan. The following year she won the gold medal in the same event at the 2017 European Wrestling Championships held in Novi Sad, Serbia. In the final she defeated Mariana Cherdivara of Moldova.
In 2018, she competed in the 57 kg event at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. She won her first match against Giullia Penalber of Brazil and her next match against Jong In-sun of North Korea. She then lost her next match against Rong Ningning of China; Rong went on to win the gold medal. Bullen then failed to secure the bronze medal in her match against Pooja Dhanda of India. A month later at the 2018 World U23 Wrestling Championship held in Bucharest, Romania she won the gold medal in the women's 59 kg event. In the final she defeated Rong Ningning of China.
In 2019, she won one of the bronze medals in the women's 57 kg event at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 2019 held in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In the same year she also competed in the 57 kg event at the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus where she lost her bronze medal match against Anastasia Nichita of Moldova. In 2020, she won the gold medal in the 57 kg event at the 2020 European Wrestling Championships held in Rome, Italy. In the final she defeated Alina Akobiia of Ukraine.

Major results

YearTournamentLocationResultEvent
2015European Games Baku, Azerbaijan3rdFreestyle 58 kg
2016European Championships Riga, Latvia2ndFreestyle 58 kg
2017European Championships Novi Sad, Serbia1stFreestyle 58 kg
2020European Championships Rome, Italy1stFreestyle 57 kg