Paris Olympics Day 11: Amit Elor, 20, becomes youngest U.S. wrestler to win Olympic gold

As she processed winning an Olympic gold medal, American wrestler Amit Elor still felt like that little girl just starting out in the sport.

Perhaps it’s because she’s not so far removed from that point.

Elor, just 20 years old, defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova 3-0 on Tuesday in the 68-kilogram final at the Paris Games to become the youngest Olympic wrestling gold medalist in U.S. history, male or female.

“I’m still in disbelief,” she said. “I think I have a little bit of impostor syndrome.”

Elor’s dominance was very real to her opponents. She had a 31-2 advantage over four matches and was not scored upon in her final three contests.

She became the third American woman to win gold, following Helen Maroulis in 2016 and Tamyra Mensah-Stock in 2021. Women started wrestling at the Olympics in 2004.

After the win, she draped the U.S. flag over her back and skipped around the mat.

“It was one of the best moments in my life,” she said. “I think I’m going to remember it for my entire life. It’s one of the best feelings in the world. And when I experience something like that, it just reminds me that everything is worth it. All the hard days, the grind, it’s all worth it for moments like these.”

Wrestler goes out on top

Mijain Lopez concluded his career at the top, retiring after winning the 130-kilogram final for his fifth consecutive gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling.

The 41-year-old Cuban defeated Yasmani Acosta Fernandez of Chile 6-0. It made him the first Olympian to win gold in an event in five straight Games.

Following the match, he placed his shoes in the center of the mat, symbolizing his retirement.

At the last Olympics, Lopez became the first male wrestler to win four gold medals when he dominated in Tokyo, blowing through the field unscored upon in four matches.

Khelif advances to gold medal match

Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s welterweight division with a semifinal victory.

Khelif defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand 5:0 in the semifinals at Roland Garros, where the crowd roared and chanted her name throughout her three-round fight. Khelif has won three consecutive bouts in Paris, and she will win either a gold or a silver medal when she completes the tournament on Friday.

She has faced scrutiny during these Games over misconceptions about her gender.

Khelif had already clinched Algeria’s first medal in women’s boxing before she stepped into the ring to rousing roars at Court Philippe Chatrier.

With one more victory, Khelif would win Algeria’s second boxing gold medal, joining Hocine Soltani (1996).

U.S. women’s volleyball team advances

The reigning Olympic champion U.S. women’s volleyball team posted a straight-set victory against Poland to advance to the semifinals in Paris.

The Americans next play powerhouse Brazil on Thursday.

The Americans made a lineup change after the team’s five-set defeat to China on July 29 to open group stage play, moving veterans Jordan Larson and Kelsey Robinson Cook to reserve roles and bringing in Avery Skinner and Kathryn Plummer. The Americans bounced back to beat Serbia two days later.

Teen wins skateboarding gold

A 14-year-old won the women’s park skateboarding and knew she had a podium locked up as soon as she nailed her final run.

Arisa Trew of Australia scored a 93.18 on her final but still had an excruciating wait to see which step on the podium she’d stand on. Only when a 92.63 popped up for Japan’s Cocona Hiraki to end the competition did Trew knew she was taking home gold.

At 14 years and 88 days old, Trew became the youngest Australian to win a medal. The previous youngest was Sandra Morgan, who was 14 years and 184 days old when she won gold in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay in 1956.

Perfect 10 in diving

Quan Hongchan of China won her second gold medal in diving competition at these Games and did it by scoring a perfect 10 on the first of her five dives.

The dive was a forward 3 1/2 somersaults and hardly made a ripple as she set off wild cheers from Chinese fans as the seven judges all registered scores of 10.

The 17-year-old, a three-time world champion, said she has scored 10 three times before — including twice while winning gold in Tokyo.

The two Chinese women teamed up earlier to win the 10-meter synchronized.

Brazil upset in beach volleyball

Top-ranked David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden jump-set their way into the beach volleyball semifinals by beating Evandro and Arthur of Brazil at the Eiffel Tower Stadium.

Brazil’s loss means the sport’s spiritual home will not win a men’s medal for the second straight Olympics. The Brazilian men took gold in Rio de Janeiro and Athens and three other medals in between.

Seine River water concerns cancel marathon swim test

A test run meant to allow athletes to familiarize themselves with the marathon swimming course in the Seine River was canceled over concerns about water quality in the Paris waterway.

World Aquatics made the decision to cancel the exercise at an early morning meeting. Fluctuating bacteria levels in the long-polluted waterway have been a constant concern throughout the Games with the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming events both planned in the river.

Another marathon swimming test event is scheduled for Wednesday, and organizers will decide early that morning whether it will go forward. The women’s marathon swim competition is set for Thursday, while the men are scheduled to race Friday.

The triathlon mixed relay event was held in the river this week. World Triathlon released data showing that when the triathletes swam, the levels of fecal bacteria E. coli and enterococci were within acceptable levels for the length of the triathlon relay course.

TUESDAY’S MEDAL WINNERS

ATHLETICS

Men’s 1500m

GOLD: Cole Hocker, United States

SILVER: Josh Kerr, Britain

BRONZE: Yared Nuguse, United States

Men’s Long Jump

GOLD: Miltiadis Tentoglou, Greece

SILVER: Wayne Pinnock, Jamaica

BRONZE: Mattia Furlani, Italy

Women’s 200m

GOLD: Gabrielle Thomas, United States

SILVER: Julien Alfred, Saint Lucia

BRONZE: Brittany Brown, United States

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase

GOLD: Winfred Yavi, Bahrain

SILVER: Peruth Chemutai, Uganda

BRONZE: Faith Cherotich, Kenya

Women’s Hammer Throw

GOLD: Camryn Rogers, Canada

SILVER: Annette Nneka Echikunwoke, United States

BRONZE: Jie Zhao, China

BOXING

Women’s 60kg

GOLD: Kellie Harrington, Ireland

SILVER: Wenlu Yang, China

BRONZE: Beatriz Iasmin Soares Ferreira, Brazil

BRONZE: Shih Yi Wu, Taiwan

CYCLING TRACK

Men’s Team Sprint

GOLD: Netherlands (Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen, Roy van den Berg)

SILVER: Britain (Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull)

BRONZE: Australia (Matthew Glaetzer, Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson)

DIVING

Women’s 10m Platform

GOLD: Hongchan Quan, China

SILVER: Yuxi Chen, China

BRONZE: Mi Rae Kim, North Korea

EQUESTRIAN

Jumping Individual

GOLD: Christian Kukuk, Germany

SILVER: Steve Guerdat, Switzerland

BRONZE: Maikel van der Vleuten, Netherlands

SKATEBOARDING

Women’s Park

GOLD: Arisa Trew, Australia

SILVER: Cocona Hiraki, Japan

BRONZE: Sky Brown, Britain

WRESTLING

Men’s Greco-Roman 130kg

GOLD: Mijain Lopez Nunez, Cuba

SILVER: Yasmani Acosta Fernandez, Chile

BRONZE: Amin Mirzazadeh, Iran

BRONZE: Lingzhe Meng, China

Men’s Greco-Roman 60kg

GOLD: Kenichiro Fumita, Japan

SILVER: Liguo Cao, China

BRONZE: Zholaman Sharshenbekov, Kyrgyzstan

BRONZE: Se Ung Ri, North Korea

Women’s Freestyle 68kg

GOLD: Amit Elor, United States

SILVER: Meerim Zhumanazarova, Kyrgyzstan

BRONZE: Buse Cavusoglu Tosun, Turkey

BRONZE: Nonoka Ozaki, Japan