USA Wrestling

Amit Elor Defeats Velte, Makes Successful Senior-Level Debut At 68 kg

Amit Elor Defeats Velte, Makes Successful Senior-Level Debut At 68 kg

Amit Elor defeated Mallory Velte at the 2024 Pan Am Qualifier Wrestle Off and will attempt to qualify Team USA for the Olympus at 68 kg.

Feb 3, 2024
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Amit Elor made a successful senior-level debut at 68 kg when she defeated Mallory Velte, 8-0 at the 2024 Pan Am Qualifier Wrestle-Off. Elor will now be the 68 kg representative for the United States at the 2024 Pan Am Olympic Games Qualifier taking place February 28-March 1 in Acapulco, Mexico. She will need to make the finals at that event to qualify Team USA for the Olympics at 68 kg.

Elor, a two-time world champion at 72 kg hadn’t wrestled at 68 kg since she won a U20 world title in 2021. The matchup against Velte was a great litmus test for Elor considering Velte is a 2-time world bronze medalist. In their match, Elor controlled ties early forcing Velte on the activity clock 90 seconds into the bout. Velte was unable to score putting Elor up 1-0. Elor continued to pressure forward for the remainder of the period and earned 3 step-outs to take a 4-0 lead into the break.

In the second period, Velte fired off a clean single-leg and even got Elor’s leg up in the air for a moment before Elor defended long enough to earn a stalemate. The rest of the period was all Elor with Velte unable to generate any offense. You can watch the match in its entirety below:

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With the win over Velte, Elor was set to wrestle 2023 68 kg world team member Emma Bruntil in a best-of-3 series. However, Bruntil forfeited to Elor allowing her to earn the 68 kg spot at the Pan-Am Olympic Games Qualifier. With the win over Velte and Elor’s previous accolades, Elor should have no trouble reaching the finals at the Pan-Am Olympic Games Qualifier to send Team USA to the Olympics at 68 kg. Beyond that, Elor should be considered a heavy favorite to make her first Olympic team this coming April at the Olympic Trials.