Wrestling Day 1 – August 5: World champ Elor, World medalist Coon start it off for Team USA
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
On the day before each competition day of the wrestling competition at Olympic Games Paris 2024, USA Wrestling will preview the next day, with a focus on the Team USA athletes who will be on the mat that day. The idea is to allow fans and journalist to be prepared for each day as it unfolds.
U.S. wrestlers competing on Monday, August 5 (with bio link)
68 kg women’s freestyle – Amit Elor (Walnut Creek, Calif./Titan Mercury WC/NYC RTC)
130 kg Greco-Roman – Adam Coon (Fowlerville, Calif./New York AC/Cliff Keen WC)
Note: The USA does not have an entry at 60 kg in Greco-Roman, the other weight class which starts on Monday.
USA Wrestling 2024 Olympics Media Guide
Who do they compete against in their first bout on Monday?
Unseeded Amit Elor will battle No. 1 seed Buse Cavusoglu Tosun of Turkey, who was a 2023 World champion. Elor, who has moved down from 72 kg, so she did not have enough seeding points in the weight class and was drawn into the bracket. Elor pinned Cavusoglu Tosun in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Senior World Championships at 72 kg in 39 seconds. Cavusoglu Tosun won World bronze medals in 2018 and 2021 and was a 2018 U23 World champion.
Unseeded Adam Coon will battle No. 1 seed Amin Mirzazadeh of Iran, who was a 2023 World champion. At one point, Coon was announced as the No. 8 seed, but a change in the qualifiers for the weight class gave Seungchan Lee of Korea the No. 8 seed, and put Coon into a position of being drawn in. Coon and Mirzazadeh have not wrestled in the past. Mirzazadeh was a 2022 World silver medalist and a 2021 U23 World champion
Who might they face later in the day?
Amit Elor
Should Amit Elor win her first match, she would face either Wiktoria Choluj of Poland or No. 8 seed Feng Zhou of China in the quarterfinals. Zhou is a two-time World medalist, with a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2018. Choluj is a three-time age-group World medalist, with a medal at the U17, U20 and U23 levels. This match would also be in the first session of the day.
Should Elor advance to the semifinals, the opponents in the other quarterbracket who could advance are No. 4 seed Irina Ringaci of Moldova, No. 5 seed Tetiana Sova Rizhko of Ukraine, Nisha Dahiya of India, or Sol Gum Pak of North Korea. Ringaci was a 2020 World champion at 65 kg, and won World bronze medals in 2022 and 2023. Sova Rizhko is a two-time age-group World medalist. Nisha won a 2021 U23 World bronze. Pak has never competed in any World Championships (Senior or age group) in the past
If Elor wins the semifinals, she is guaranteed a gold-medal match on Tuesday. If she loses in the semifinals, she is guaranteed a bronze-medal match on Tuesday. With a loss prior to the semifinals, Elor would only get drawn into the Tuesday repechage if the opponent who beat her won the semifinals.
Adam Coon
Should Adam Coon win his first match, he would face either four-time Olympic champion Mijian Lopez of Cuba or No. 8 seed Seungchan Lee of Korea in the quarterfinals. Lopez, who has not competed since the 2020 Olympics, was also drawn into the bracket. He is a five-time World champion as well and is competing in his sixth Olympic Games. Lee has competed in three Senior World Championships, without a medal.
Should Coon advance to the semifinals, the other quarterbracket features No. 4 seed Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu of Romania, No. 5 seed Heiki Nabi of Estonia, Sabah Shariati of Azerbaijan or Alimkhan Syzdykov of Kazakhstan. Alexuc was a 2022 World bronze medalist, and is competing in his fourth Olympic Games. Nabi was a 2012 Olympic silver medalist and won World gold medals in 2006 and 2013. Shariati was a 20216 Olympic bronze medalist. Syzdyov has wrestled in four Senior Worlds, with no placements better than 18th place.
If Coon wins the semifinals, he is guaranteed a gold-medal match on Tuesday. If he loses in the semifinals, he is guaranteed a bronze-medal match on Tuesday. With a loss prior to the semifinals, Coon would only get drawn into the Tuesday repechage if the opponent who beat him won the semifinals.
First Round Mat Assignments
Mat B, Bout 1 - Amit Elor (USA) vs. Buse Cavusoglu Tosun (Turkey)
Mat C, Bout 1 - Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) vs. Adam Coon (USA)
Note: Wrestling does not assign a specific time for each match, as they run the matches consecutively according to the day’s start sheet. If you wish to see a specific athlete, it is recommended to follow the entire session.
Official brackets on UWW Arena
Some background on each USA wrestler competing on Monday
Amit Elor is competing in her first Olympic Games, at just 20 years old. She is already a two-time Senior World champion (2022 and 2023), with her 2022 victory making her the youngest U.S. Senior World champion in any discipline or gender at 18 years old. A star at the age-group level, Elor has six age-group freestyle World gold medals, giving her eight UWW World titles. She won three World titles (U20, U23, Senior) in both 2022 and 2023, the only wrestler in World history to reach this achievement. A native of Walnut Creek, Calif., Elor won a California high school state title in folkstyle as a freshman for College Park High School, then switched entirely to the international style, freestyle. Elor did not choose to wrestle on a women's team in college, although she does attend classes at Diablo Valley College. She trains in multiple locations, including California, New York City and at the USOPTC in Colorado. Elor is being coached in Paris by the legendary Sara McMann, who won a 2004 Olympic silver medal and has had a successful career in Mixed Martial Arts.
Adam Coon is competing in his first Olympic Games, at 29 years old. He won a Senior World silver medal in Greco-Roman in 2018 and also competed in the 2019 World Championships. Coon won the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, but did no qualify the nation for the Tokyo Games. After Tokyo, Coon spent a few years pursuing a career in professional football, including time in NFL training camps. He returned to wrestling, and beat the person who qualified the weight class, Cohlton Schultz, in the Olympic Trials. Coon was a three-time All-American for Michigan and is one of five Wolverines competing in Games (the other American is MFS 125 kg Mason Parris). Coon was a USA Wrestling age-group star, the first to win two Junior Triple Crown, and a U20 World medalist in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. The son of a wrestling coach, his college degree is in aerospace engineering and he would be psyched if he worked for NASA some day.
The final seeds (after weigh in) for each weight class starting on Monday
68 kg Women’s Freestyle
No. 1 - Buse CAVUSOGLU TOSUN (TUR)
No. 2 - Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL)
No. 3 - Koumba LARROQUE (FRA)
No. 4 - Irina RINGACI (MDA)
No. 5 - Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO (UKR)
No. 6 - Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR)
No. 7 - Soleymi CARABALLO HERNANDEZ (VEN)
No. 8 - Feng ZHOU (CHN)
130 kg Greco-Roman
No. 1 - Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI)
No. 2 - Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY)
No. 3 - Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
No. 4 - Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU)
No. 5 - Heiki NABI (EST)
No. 6 - Mantas KNYSTAUTAS (LTU)
No. 7 - Yasmani ACOSTA FERNANDEZ (CHI)
No. 8 - Seungchan LEE (KOR)
60 kg Greco-Roman
No. 1 Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ)
No. 2 Liguo CAO (CHN)
No. 3 Victor CIOBANU (MDA)
No. 4 Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
No. 5 Mehdi MOHSEN NEJAD (IRI)
No. 6 Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
No. 7 Raiber RODRIGUEZ (VEN)
No. 8 Razvan ARNAUT (ROU)
Wrestling Schedule on Monday, August 5
3 p.m. – Qualification rounds (GR 60 kg, 130 kg; WFS 68 kg)
9 p.m. – Semifinals (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)
Please note: The wrestling schedule on Monday is different than it will be the rest of the wrestling schedule. It has a later start time.
NBC Television schedule for U.S. viewers
- All of Monday’s sessions are streamed live on Peacock (9 a.m. ET, and 3 p.m. Monday ET)
USA Wrestling Weight Class Previews
Paris Preview 68 kg WFS: U.S. prodigy Elor among six World champions in stacked 68 kg field
Paris Preview 130 kg GR: American Adam Coon among athlete standing in the way of Olympic history
Paris Preview 60 kg GR: Kyrgyzstan’s Sharshenbekov seeks third-straight gold at 60 kg in Greco-Roman
UWW Day 1 preview
Read More#
2024 Olympic Games Blog with coach Terry Steiner
Willie Saylor of MatScouts wins journalist champion picks contest for 2024 Olympic wrestling
Elor reaches Olympics 68 kg women’s freestyle semifinals; Coon falls to Greco-Roman World champion and is eliminated
Amit Elor powers into Olympic finals at 68 kg in women’s freestyle in Paris
