20-year-old phenom Amit Elor could be America’s most dominant wrestler at the 2024 Olympics

The United States is sending one of its best-ever wrestling teams to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, and a 20-year-old phenom could be the biggest favorite to capture gold.

Already crowned as the youngest American to ever win a wrestling World Championship when she was only 18, Amit Elor seeks to add to her long list of accolades when she sets foot on the mat as the top-ranked athlete at 68 kg. Winning at the Olympics would make Elor the youngest woman wrestler to ever capture gold.

If she had been born one day earlier (her birthday is Jan. 1, 2004), Elor could’ve potentially represented America at the 2020 Olympics, but more time and experience now has her on the precipice of an Olympic gold medal. The weight of those expectations could crush a young athlete, but Elor has been waiting for this moment her entire life.

“I don’t know if you call it imposter syndrome, but I’ve gone and I’ve won so many big competitions, but I don’t really feel very different,” Elor told MMA Fighting. “I think some people might say that’s what contributes to an athlete being consistent and continuing to be successful. I don’t feel too different even after the titles that I have earned.

“I think that helps me stay driven towards the next goal, the next competition. I don’t think I can feel too different after a competition. Not yet at least. We’ll see how the Olympics go.”

Just because she’s favored to win doesn’t mean Elor is taking anything for granted headed into her first Olympic match, which takes place Monday.

Wrestling can be a completely unpredictable sport, and one wrong move could mean the difference between a pin or being pinned. Elor understands that her status as a two-time World Champion puts a big target on her back, which is why she’s making sure there are no shortcuts taken in preparation for any Olympic matches.

“Those two World Championships have really helped me,” Elor said. “I have a lot more experience and I’m able to handle the pressure better, and I’m used to being on that world stage. But however, the Olympics is once every four years and there is a lot of pressure with that. But I tell myself I can’t be so focused on the fact that it’s once every four years because if I get so focused on the stress of the situation, I might not be able to perform in the first place.

“I tell myself, why stress over [something when] I can’t change the situation? I just have to go out there and do my very best. I think that helps me clear out some of the pressure. You do see a lot of upsets at the Olympics. You have previous world champions go in and they don’t even medal. It’s different. I think everyone has a different mentality going into the Olympics, even if it’s the same brackets, the same wrestlers, but there’s something different about it because of that pressure.”

Wrestling at 68 kg. in 2024 puts Elor in elite company when it comes to the U.S. team as she takes over the weight class once ruled by Tamyra Mensah-Stock, who claimed the gold medal at the 2020 Olympics. Mensah-Stock opted to sign with WWE to pursue a career in professional wrestling after the Olympics, which opened the door for Elor to take over after winning the World Championships at 72 kg.

Elor hasn’t skipped a beat in her new weight class, and she takes her role seriously as she seeks to carry on the legacy that Mensah-Stock left behind.

“I feel like I have a huge responsibility being in this weight class,” Elor said. “To carry over the role and the power that Tamyra had for all of us. She has been, just like Helen [Maroulis], a huge role model for me.

“So it’s crazy to be in her spot. It feels like it’s a huge responsibility to go out there and represent at that weight for her.”

While she’s favored to win, Elor is still the youngest member of the American wrestling team — joined by fellow 20-year-old Kennedy Blades, who is four months older — but she has plenty of people looking out for her.

She counts one-time UFC title challenger and Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann as her head coach, and there’s plenty of experienced medal winners surrounding Elor on the team. That means there’s been no shortage of wisdom being shared with Elor as she embarks on her mission for gold.

“I say throughout the past two years, I received butt-loads of advice,” Elor said with a laugh. “I’ve been on World teams with Helen, with Tamyra before she moved to WWE, and Adeline Gray. Just being on the same teams with them, traveling with them, being around them for weeks and weeks, I’ve received a lot of advice.

“Not just that, but observing them from the side and seeing how they carry themselves and how they train and what they did to prepare. Just witnessing that has helped me, and I’ve learned a lot from that.”

If there’s a downside to her immense success in wrestling at such a young age, it’s that Elor rarely gets the chance to just be a regular 20-year-old.

While most people her age are a year or two into college, going to parties and just enjoying their youth, Elor sacrificed all of that for the chance at setting records that may never be broken. There are times when Elor wishes she could just act her age, but then she remembers why she started wrestling in the first place.

“There’s times that I go to practice and I ask myself, why am I doing this?” Elor said. “Because there’s just so many other things that I wish I had time to do. But at the same time, I tell myself nothing is more worth it than embracing the grind and the preparation for this.

“I know that feeling after a big competition when you really had to dig down deep to get through everything, the preparation, the competition itself, and you just feel so proud of yourself, and you’re like, ‘I’m so happy I did that. I’m so glad I didn’t give up and I pushed through.’”

Elor kicks off her Olympics run on Monday when she faces No. 1 ranked Buse Cavusoglu Tosun from Turkey, who she pinned in just 44 seconds when they met in the quarterfinals of the World Championships in 2022. Watch that match below: