Golden Girl — local wrestler Amit Elor wins gold in Paris
PARIS, FRANCE (August 6, 2024) — Amit Elor, all of 20-years-old, is an Olympic Champion! The Contra Costa woman has not lost a wrestling match in 5 years and the Olympic finals were no different on Tuesday with her 3-0 victory over Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova in the 68kg gold medal match. It was the final match of the evening and gave the USA its first wrestling medal in Paris.
Amit becomes the youngest American wrestler ever to win an Olympic Gold Medal, male or female.
She totally dominated her four opponents in Paris, outscoring them 31-2. Elor dropped down from her usual 72kg weight class to 68kg (about 9 pounds less) for the Olympics so she was unseeded in the bracket. She thus drew Turkey’s Buse Cavusoglu Tosun in the opening match and scored an easy 10-2 over the current world champion at 68. Observers said Tosun looked “paralyzed by fear of Elor.”
As a College Park High School freshman in 2019 she was identified as a phenom when she went through every opponent undefeated while winning Diablo Athletic League, North Coast Section and CIF State wrestling titles, and she’s never looked back winning 8 world championships since 2021.
Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.