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American Amit Elor to wrestle for gold medal on Tuesday

American Amit Elor will wrestle for gold on Tuesday night.

Courtesy USA Wrestling

Two-time world champion Amit Elor, the youngest American woman to win a Senior-level world championship, won three times on Monday to advance to the women’s freestyle finals at 68 kilograms (149½ pounds) at the Champ de-Mars Arena in Paris.

Elor, 20, who has already won seven world championships at three different age group levels, will face Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the finals on Tuesday night. Zhumanazarova was a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist and a three-time age-group world medalist.

Elor was dominant on Monday including a quick 10-0 win by technical fall in the semifinals over 18-year-old Sol Gum Park of North Korea in 1:44. Elor scored a go-behind takedown, then locked up an ankle lace, turning Gum Pak, the youngest wrestler in the tournament, for two points four times in a row to close out the match.

“I’ve been training a lot with my coach to make sure when I get a takedown I don’t overlook the thought of getting a turn,” Elor said. “It makes a huge difference you saw it a match like that. One takedown, four turns and the match is over.”

In freestyle, wrestlers earn points for just exposing their opponents back to the mat.

And when it was over, Elor glanced up, smiled and soaked up the emotion of the moment.

“I had goosebumps and I was just staring at that crowd of people just cheering for me and I was like I can’t believe this is real,” she said. “I can’t believe life is real because that little girl that started wrestling at four years old is still inside of me. And she’s just looking out, like, what is happening right now? How did I go from just, like, you know, local kids practice to the Olympic stage? You know, it’s just, it’s insane.”

Elor, who grew up in California, came into the Olympics with a pair of world championship gold medals at 72 kg. Her 2022 world title made her the youngest U.S. world champion in any style or gender. She has won eight UWW world titles in her career, including three at the U20 level, two at the U23 level (senior) and one at the U17 level.

Competing in her first Olympic Games, Elor was unseeded at 68 kg because she previously competed at 72 kg and did not earn any seeding points at this weight class.

She opened with an impressive 10-2 decision over No. 1 seed and 2023 world champion Buse Cavusoglu Tosun of Turkey. Elor scored a takedown and three step outs for a 5-0 lead at the break. In the second period, she continued to control the action, scoring two takedowns and receiving a shot clock point. Tosun could only muster one takedown with 15 seconds on the clock.

In the quarterfinals, Elor was again dominant, shutting out Wiktoria Choluj of Poland, 8-0. Elor took a 5-0 lead at the break with two takedowns and a step out. In the second period, Elor added a shot clock point, then a final takedown for the victory.

In Greco-Roman competition, American Adam Coon (130 kg/286 pounds) was defeated in his opening match at 130 kg by the No. 1 seed and 2023 world champion Amin Mirzazadeh of Iran, 3-1. Coon was hit with a passivity to trail 1-0, and Mirzazadeh scored a gut wrench for two points and a 3-0 lead. In the second period, Mirzazadeh was hit for passivity to make it 3-1. Coon could not turn him, and there were no more points scored in the match.

Mirzazadeh was defeated in the quarterfinals by four-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion Mijian Lopez of Cuba, 3-1. Coon was then not eligible for repechage, as only those who lose to a gold-medal finalist may enter Tuesday’s repechage rounds.

Lopez is attempting to become the first Olympian in history to win a gold medal in a single discipline in five straight Olympic Games.

Coon, a 2018 world bronze medalist and two time world team member, was competing in his first Olympic Games. Coon was a three-time NCAA All-American for Michigan.

Three Americans will wrestle on Tuesday. Kamal Bey (77 kg/169 lbs.) and Joe Rau (97 kg/213 lbs.) will compete in Greco-Roman while Sarah Hildebrandt (50 kg/110 lbs.) will compete in women’s freestyle.

Hildebrandt, the No. 6 seed, will open against four-time African bronze medalist Ibtissem Doudou of Algeria in the opening match.

Bey, who is unseeded, will open against No. 3 seed Akzhol Makhmudov of Kyrgyzstan, a 2022 and 2023 world champion and a 2020 Olympic silver medalist. Rau, who is also unseeded, opens against No. 3 seed Mohammadhadi Saravi of Iran, a 2021 world champion and two-time world bronze medalist (2022 and 2023).

The gold medal match for Elor should begin around 3 p.m. EST on Tuesday. It will broadcast live on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.

Wrestling Schedule on Tuesday, August 6
11 a.m. (5 a.m. EST) – Repechage (GR 60 kg, 130 kg; WFS 68 kg)
11:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m.) – Qualification rounds (GR 77 kg, 97 kg; WFS 50 kg)
6:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m.) – Semifinals (GR 77 kg, 97 kg; WFS 50 kg)
7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EST) – Medal matches (GR 60 kg, 130 kg; WFS 68 kg)
All times local. Paris, France, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time Zone. (GMT+2) 

First round mat assignments
Mat A, Bout 7 – Kamal Bey (USA) vs. Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan)
Mat B, Bout 8 – Sarah Hildebrandt (USA) vs. Ibtissem Doudou (Algeria)
Mat C, Bout 7 – Joe Rau (USA) vs. Mohammadhadi Saravi (Iran)
Note: Elor’s finals match order against Meerim Zhumanazarova has not yet been assigned.

Official brackets on UWW Arena
https://arena.uww.org/sport-event/show/1ef379e8-e875-691a-8523-7b7ebc03fc97

NBC Television schedule for U.S. viewers

https://www.themat.com/2024-olympic-broadcast-schedule
All of Tuesday’s sessions are streamed live on Peacock (5 a.m. ET, and 12:15 p.m. ET)
USA Network – Day 2 elimination rounds, 8 a.m. ET
USA Network – Day 2 semifinals/medal matches, 5:15 p.m. ET

Content from USA Wrestling used to compile this report.

Connecticut Wrestling Online has been covering the sport of wrestling in Connecticut and New England since 2001.

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