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Amit Elor

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Amit Elor
Personal information
Born (2004-01-01) January 1, 2004 (age 20)[1]
Walnut Creek, California, U.S.
Alma materDiablo Valley College
Years active2019–present
Height5 ft 7 in (170 cm)[2]
Sport
CountryUnited States
SportAmateur wrestling
Weight class68 kg (150 pounds)
EventFreestyle
ClubNew York City Regional Training Center[3]
New York Athletic Club
Al Wahda Club Jiu-Jitsu Academy[4]
Titan Mercury Wrestling Club[2]
Coached byValentin Kalika (head coach)
Terry Steiner (women's coach for USA Wrestling)
Sara McMann[5]
Achievements and titles
World finals2x world champion (2022, 2023)
Highest world rankingNo. 1[2]
Medal record
Women's freestyle wrestling
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2024 Paris 68 kg
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2022 Belgrade 72 kg
Gold medal – first place 2023 Belgrade 72 kg
Pan American Championships
Gold medal – first place 2023 Buenos Aires 72 kg
U23 World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2022 Pontevedra 72 kg
Gold medal – first place 2023 Tirana 72 kg
Junior World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2021 Ufa 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2022 Sofia 72 kg
Gold medal – first place 2023 Amman 72 kg
Cadet World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2021 Budapest 69 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Sofia 69 kg

Amit Elor (/əˈmiːt iːˈlɔːr/ ə-MEET ee-LOR; born January 1, 2004)[6] is an American freestyle wrestler who has claimed Olympic (2024) and world gold medals. She competes at 68 kilograms (150 pounds). She has won eight world championships, and has been a cadet, junior, and senior world champion. She won the senior world championships in both 2022 and 2023. Going into the 2024 Olympics, she had not lost an international match, in any age group, since 2019, as she compiled a 37-0 record and outscored her opponents by a margin of 322-16.

Elor won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Women's freestyle wrestling 68 kg at the Grand Palais Éphémère. At 20 years old, she became the youngest United States wrestler ever, male or female, to win an Olympic gold medal.

Early life

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Elor was born in Walnut Creek, California, to Israeli parents Elana and Yair Elor, originally from Ashkelon. [7][8] Her parents moved to the United States in 1980 to attend university. Her father, a shot putter and discus thrower, had received an athletic scholarship from Boise State University.[5][8][9][10]

She is the youngest of six siblings. Her sister Ronny and brother Orry both won USA Wrestling Junior National titles (Orry also came in fourth in the 2016 US Greco-Roman Olympic trials). Her brother Oshry was murdered at home at age 23 during an attempted robbery in 2018.[11] Her father Yair died in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] Both of her grandfathers and her great-grandmother were Holocaust survivors.[7] The rest of the family lives in Israel.[7]

Elor grew up in Walnut Creek.[8] She only spoke Hebrew until she attended the local JCC preschool in Contra Costa County.[8] She attended College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, California, graduating in 2022.[8][7] She attends Diablo Valley College, studying statistics, applied math, and psychology.[7][2]

Wrestling career

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Elor has trained in wrestling almost her whole life, having started at age four.[7] As she was growing up, she traveled to Israel every summer to wrestle.[12] She was a skilled judoka at a young age, representing the United States in the female INTL Intermediate division at +43kg in 2013, aged nine.[13]

Collegiate style

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During her high school years, Elor won multiple high school tournaments.[14][15] In her freshman year, she was 36-0 and pinned her final opponent in 20 seconds to win a California Interscholastic Federation state championship.[12] She received the 2019 California High School Champion of Champions award.[2] She was the 2016 Novice USA Wrestling Girls Folkstyle Nationals champion.[2]

Freestyle

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Early years

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After meeting Ukrainian/Israeli coach Valentin Kalika, Elor started training in freestyle wrestling.[10] When she was a child, her mother recalls, "once she started beating up the boys, there were a lot of coaches that didn’t like it. They would tell her, 'Go easy on the boys.'"[16]

She won the junior worlds twice. She has won eight world championships, including cadet, junior, and senior world championships.[17][5]

In 2019, she won the gold medal in the Cadet (U17) Beach World Championships in Odessa, Ukraine.[2] In 2021, Elor won gold medals in the Junior (U20) World Wrestling Championships in Ufa, Russia, and the Cadet (U17) World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.[2] Because she had been born on January 1, 2004, she missed the age cutoff to qualify to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Games by one day.[18]

2022–present

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In September 2022, Elor became the youngest World Champion in American wrestling history, after winning the world title in the 2022 World Wrestling Championships Belgrade, Serbia, at 18 years old.[19][20] She defeated Zhamila Bakbergenova of Kazakhstan in her gold medal match.[21] A month later, she won the gold medal in the 72 kg event at the 2022 U23 World Wrestling Championships held in Pontevedra, Spain.[22] She also won the gold medal in the U20 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.[2]

In 2023, she won the gold medals in the Senior World Wrestling Championships (for the second year in a row) in Belgrade, Serbia, the U23 World Wrestling Championships in Tirana, Albania, and the U20 World Junior Wrestling Championships in Amman, Jordan.[2][7] Elor also won the gold medal in her event at the 2023 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[23] That year she was named the Women's Wrestler of the Year by USA Wrestling for the second consecutive year.[24]

In 2024, at the Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Acapulco, Mexico, Elor earned a quota place for the United States for the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France.[25][26] She qualified for the Olympics at the 2024 United States Olympic trials held in State College, Pennsylvania.[27]

Going into the 2024 Olympics, she had not lost an international match, in any age group, since 2019. She had won eight world titles in three years. And she had compiled a 37-0 record, outscoring her opponents by a margin of 322-16.[27][16]

2024 Paris Olympics

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Elor won the gold medal for the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in Women's freestyle wrestling 68 kg at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Champ de Mars. At 20 years of age, she was the youngest female wrestler ever to represent the United States at the Olympics.[7] She had dropped down from the weight class at which she typically competed, 72 kg, because it was not offered on the Olympic program.[18] She said: "I am very concerned about hostility Israeli athletes may receive this summer. Particularly after what happened in the 1972 Munich Olympics, the horrifying attack on October 7, the ongoing war in Israel, and the antisemitism rising all over the world. Israel means a lot to me. It’s my parents’ home and therefore it’s my home, too.[8] She said as well:

I was shocked by the October 7 brutal Hamas attack and deeply saddened and concerned about everything that followed. The enormous pain, suffering, and loss is unbearable. If my wrestling at the Olympics can bring even just a little joy in Israel, it will make all the hard work and sacrifices worth it and extra special. I am an American proudly wrestling for the U.S., but in my heart, I am also wrestling for Israel.[28]

She defeated 2023 reigning world champion Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu of Turkey in the first round (10-2), three-time European U23 champion Wiktoria Chołuj of Poland in the second round (8-0), Pak Sol-gum of North Korea in the semi-finals (10-0), and 2021 world champion Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the finals (3-0).[29][18] She became the youngest United States wrestler ever, male or female, to win an Olympic gold medal.[18] She also extended her five-year undefeated streak.[30]

After Elor won her Olympic gold medal, she received antisemitic comments on social media, including one comment "And you belong in the gas chamber". In response she posted a video in which she wore a yellow ribbon pin, symbolizing support for the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. She said: "Eighty years ago my grandparents survived the Holocaust, but antisemitism is still all around us. My grandparents won. I won. Humanity will win. Never again."[30][31]

Championships and achievements

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  • Freestyle wrestling:
    • 2019 Cadet World Championships – 3rd (69 kg)
    • 2021 Cadet World Championships – 1st (69 kg)
    • 2021 Junior World Championships – 1st (68 kg)
    • 2022, 2023 Junior World Championships – 1st (72 kg)
    • 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series – 8th (72 kg)[32]
    • 2022, 2023 Senior World Championships – 1st (72 kg)
    • 2022, 2023 U23 World Championships – 1st (72 kg)
    • 2022 World Cup – 4th (72 kg)
    • 2023 Pan American Championships – 1st (72 kg)
    • 2024 Summer Olympics – 1st (68 kg)
  • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (she has also been a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner):
    • Purple belt[33]
    • 2021 BJJBET Grand Prix – 1st (68 kg)[34]

International freestyle wrestling record

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Senior Freestyle International matches
Res. Record Opponent Score Date Event Location
2024 Summer Olympics 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 68 kg
Win 41–1 Kyrgyzstan Meerim Zhumanazarova 3-0 August 5–6, 2024 Summer Olympics

France Paris, France

Win 40–1 North Korea Pak Sol-gum TF 10–0
Win 39–1 Poland Wiktoria Chołuj 8–0
Win 38–1 Turkey Buse Tosun 10–2
2023 U23 World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 37–1 India Jyoti Berwal TF 10–0 October 26–27, 2023 U23 World Championships

Albania Tirana, Albania

Win 36–1 Poland Wiktoria Chołuj 5–0
Win 35–1 Belarus Viktoryia Radzkova 4F–0
Win 34–1 Tunisia Zaineb Sghaier 4F–0
2023 World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 33–1 Mongolia Enkh-Amaryn Davaanasan 8–2 September 20–21, 2023 World Championships

Serbia Belgrad, Serbia

Win 32–1 France Kendra Dacher TF 12–2
Win 31–1 Japan Miwa Morikawa 6–0
Win 30–1 Turkey Nesrin Baş 7–0
2023 Junior World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 29–1 Turkey Bükrenaz Sert TF 11–0 August 19–20, 2023 Junior World Championships

Jordan Amman, Jordan

Win 28–1 Japan Yuka Fujikura TF 10–0
Win 27–1 Poland Patrycja Cuber 5F–0
Win 26–1 Kazakhstan Shamshiyabanu Tastanbek TF 10–0
2023 Pan American Wrestling Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 25–1 Chile Isidora Martinez TF 10–0 May 7, 2023 Pan American Championship

Argentina Buenos Aires, Argentina

Win 24–1 Brazil Meiriele Hora TF 10–0
Win 23–1 Canada Katie Mulkay 6F–0
Win 22–1 Colombia Luisa Mosquera TF 10–0
2022 World Cup 4th at 72 kg
Win 21–1 China Qiandegenchagan Qiandegenchagan 5–0 December 10–11, 2022 World Cup

United States Coralville, US

U23 2022 World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 20–1 Poland Wiktoria Chołuj TF 11–0 October 20–21, 2022 U23 World Championships

Spain Pontevedra, Spain

Win 19–1 Romania Larisa Nițu 4F–0
Win 18–1 France Kendra Dacher 13F–2
2022 Senior World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 17–1 Kazakhstan Zhamila Bakbergenova 10–0 September 14–15, 2022 Senior World Championships

Serbia Belgrade, Serbia

Win 16–1 Japan Masako Furuichi 3–2
Win 15–1 Turkey Buse Tosun 4F–0
Win 14–1 Ukraine Anastasiya Alpyeyeva TF 10–0
2022 Junior World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 72 kg
Win 13–1 Kazakhstan Anastassiya Panassovich TF 10–0 August 15–21, 2022 Junior World Championships

Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria

Win 12–1 India Reetika Reetika TF 12–1
Win 11–1 Hungary Zsófia Virág TF 10–0
Win 10–1 Tunisia Zaineb Sghaier Fall
Zouhaier Sghaier 8th at 72 kg
9–1 Tunisia Zaineb Sghaier Forfeit July 14–17, 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier

Tunisia Tunis, Tunisia

9–1 India Bipasha Bipasha Forfeit
2021 Junior World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 68 kg
Win 9–1 Russia Elizaveta Petliakova TF 10–0 August 16–22, 2021 2021 Junior World Championships

Russia Ufa, Russia

Win 8–1 Slovakia Molnar Zsuzsanna TF 11–0
Win 7–1 India Arju Arju TF 10–0
2021 Cadet World Championships 1st place, gold medalist(s) at 69 kg
Win 6–1 Ukraine Yevhenii Siedykh Fall July 19–25, 2021 2021 Cadet World Championships

Hungary Budapest, Hungary

Win 5–1 Belarus Viktoryia Radzkova Fall
Win 4–1 Romania Barbara Abigel Sere TF 10–0
2019 Cadet World Championships 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) at 69 kg
Win 3–1 Tunisia Zaineb Sghaier TF 12–0 July 29–4, 2019 2019 Cadet World Championships

Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria

Loss 2–1 Japan Honoka Naka 1–3
Win 2–0 Hungary Lili Újfalvi TF 10–0
Win 1–0 Ukraine Karolina Povk TF 12–0

Personal life

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Amit is a dog lover and likes to cook[13] She used to date Micael Galvão.[35]

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Amit Elor Seeking World Domination One Competition At A Time; Amit Elor hasn't been on the mat much lately, mainly because her matches don't last long". Flowrestling. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Amit Elor," USA Wrestling.
  3. ^ "NYCRTC's Young Star Amit Elor Seeks World Domination After Double World Titles". NYCRTC. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
  4. ^ "Amit Elor is an Al Wahda BJJ club member". UAEJJF.
  5. ^ a b c d Aimee Berg (August 4, 2024). "US wrestling phenom Amit Elor has overcome personal tragedy and online antisemitism. Now, she will vie for gold in Paris," JTA.
  6. ^ "ELOR Amit". Olympics.com. 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Evelyn Frick (July 18, 2024). "18 Things to Know About Jewish Wrestler Amit Elor," Hey Alma.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Dan Pine (July 24, 2024). "East Bay’s Amit Elmor is youngest woman ever to compete in Olympic wrestling," The Jewish News of Northern California.
  9. ^ "Amit Elor: College Park's Pin-Seeking Phenom". Sport Stars Magazine. December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Benjamin WeinthalL (October 18, 2022). "Amit Daughter of Israelis makes US wrestling history with gold medal win". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  11. ^ Nate Gartell (January 15, 2020). "Jury Convicts Two in Pleasant Hill Robbery/Shooting Death," The Mercury News.
  12. ^ a b "Summer Olympics: Walnut Creek’s Amit Elor overcame family tragedy, will now wrestle for a gold medal; Elor dominated her opponent from North Korea on Monday," Mercury News.
  13. ^ a b "Amit Elor practices with Pirozhkova". amitelor.com. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
  14. ^ "Amit Elor (Walnut Creek, CA) | Trackwrestling Profile". Trackwrestling.
  15. ^ "Amit Elor on Flowrestling". Flowrestling. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  16. ^ a b "USA wrestler Amit Elor has become the 'young GOAT' of her sport, through tragedy and loss," USA Today.
  17. ^ "Amit Elor Selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week". teamusa.org. Archived from the original on September 11, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  18. ^ a b c d Henry Bushnell (August 6, 2024). "Paris Olympics: Amit Elor, Team USA’s wrestling phenom, wins historic gold," Yahoo.
  19. ^ "Susaki storms to third world gold at 50kg". UWW. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  20. ^ Brennan, Eliott (September 15, 2022). "Olympic champion Stock-Mensah resumes title success at World Wrestling Championships". InsideTheGames. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
  21. ^ "2022 World Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 18, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  22. ^ "2022 U23 World Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  23. ^ "2023 Pan American Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2024. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  24. ^ "2023 USA Wrestling Women’s Freestyle Awards: Amit Elor (Wrestler), Clarissa Chun (Coach)," USA Wrestling.
  25. ^ "Qualified NOCs at 2024 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2024. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  26. ^ "2024 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2024. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  27. ^ a b "U.S. phenom Amit Elor qualifies for first Olympic team after winning eight world titles," USA Wrestling.
  28. ^ Yaniv Pohoryles (July 12, 2024) "'I'm wrestling for the US but in my heart, I'm also wrestling for Israel'," The Jerusalem Post.
  29. ^ "Amit Elor powers into Olympic finals at 68 kg in women’s freestyle in Paris," USA Wrestling.
  30. ^ a b Luke Tress (August 9, 2024). "Jewish Olympic wrestling champion Amit Elor condemns antisemitism, after avoiding subject ahead of Paris," JTA.
  31. ^ "'You belong in the gas chamber': American-Israeli wrestler faces antisemitism in Paris". YNET News. August 9, 2024. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  32. ^ "Amit's bio on UWW". UWW. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
  33. ^ Amiot Elor (April 7, 2021). "FAIXA ROXA! I'm so happy to be promoted to purple belt". Facebook. Retrieved April 7, 2021.[self-published]
  34. ^ "Com apenas 17 anos, americana cumpre promessa e doa R$ 24 mil para projeto social em Manaus; veja". lance.com.br. March 25, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  35. ^ Elor, Amit. "Recovering from pneumonia too 🥲#sounds #heartbreak #recovery #fypシ". TikTok. Amit Elor. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
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