Varsha
PARIS — The match over, the gold medal secured, Amit Elor threw her hands up to her mouth in astonishment. This reaction wasn’t shared by anyone at the Champs-de-Mars Arena on Tuesday night. Even her opponent in the 68-kilogram (150-pound) freestyle wrestling final seemed resigned to Elor’s superiority, spending most of the match in a defensive crouch, trying to stave off the inevitable.
Elor, 20, triumphed over Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova, 3-0, completing a dominant run at the Olympics 2024 and making her the youngest Olympic champion in American wrestling history. In her four matches, she outpointed her opponents by an aggregate score of 31-2, leaving one opponent in tears and another mercy-ruled in the semifinals.
“I’m surprised anyone scored on her at all,” said Elor’s coach, Sara McMann.
A Record-Breaking Journey
If Amit Elor wrestling performance in Paris sounds impressive, it is even more so when considering her past five undefeated years. Since her last loss in 2019, she has won eight world championships in both age-group and senior-level competitions, gone 41-0 in international matches, and outscored opponents by a combined score of 353-8.
The most dominant female athlete in America might not be in swimming or gymnastics but in wrestling. Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles occasionally face defeat, but Elor’s record remains unblemished. She astonishes every time she wins, flipping her opponents and dominating on a global scale from Belgrade to Buenos Aires.
“I’m still in disbelief,” Elor said minutes after her gold medal win. “I think I have a little bit of impostor syndrome because I still feel like that little kid who just started wrestling. But I just became an Olympic champion.”
The Arrival of a Generational Talent
Elor’s victory Tuesday night had the unmistakable aura of a generational talent making their mark. With IOC President Thomas Bach watching, 41-year-old Mijain Lopez, the Cuban heavyweight legend, won his championship match to become the first Olympic athlete to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event. His dramatic retirement hinted at the dawn of the Elor era.
Elor was born to Israeli-immigrant parents on New Year’s Day 2004, the same year women’s wrestling debuted in the Olympics. Just missing the age cutoff for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she might have been too young then, but at 20, she came to Paris as a genuine phenom with multiple world championships.
Overcoming Personal Tragedies
The youngest of six children raised in Walnut Creek, Calif., Elor was drawn to wrestling at age 4. Competing mostly against boys due to few girls’ programs, she excelled, winning a boys’ national folkstyle wrestling championship at 12. She became an international teenage sensation and hasn’t lost a match since 2019.
Even as Elor dominated on the mat, she faced unimaginable tragedies off it. Her older brother was killed in a home invasion in 2018, and her father died in 2022. The war in Gaza added layers of emotional complexity connected to her parents’ homeland.
“I heard last night that almost the whole country [of Israel] was watching me, and I can’t believe all the love I’ve received,” she said. “I hope I can bring even just an ounce of joy to the people right now.”
Looking Ahead
“Other than becoming an Olympic champion, my biggest dream is to go to the 2028 Olympics in California,” Elor said. “I’ve been excited for that ever since I heard about it.”
Though she was ready to talk more about her journey, Elor was whisked away for her medal ceremony. In a dimly lit corner of a makeshift tent, USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender helped her prepare. The welts covering her face, a wrestler’s signature, would remain, but her wrestling shoes were replaced with expensive-looking sneakers. The shoes, symbols of her hard-fought victory, went into a duffel bag, not to be taken near the center of the mat again.
Upcoming Olympics Schedule and Future Prospects
With the Olympics 2024 concluded, the world will soon turn its attention to the upcoming events and the Olympics schedule. Amit Elor wrestling success story adds a new chapter to the annals of Olympic history. As she sets her sights on future competitions, fans eagerly anticipate more dominant performances from this extraordinary athlete, ensuring that the era of S.G Pak and Elor continues to inspire.
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