Olympic champion Elor headlines Senior World Team Trials field in women’s freestyle

53 elite athletes are entered in the women’s freestyle division for this weekend’s Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament being held at Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center in Louisville, Ky., May 16-17.

Multiple Olympians, World medalists, Senior World Team members, age-group standouts, college national champions and top high school prospects are in the fold with sights set on securing one of the eight remaining spots at Final X.

Online registration is open through May 15, leaving the door open for more athletes to enter last minute. However, the registration deadline to be eligible for tournament seeding was last Friday, making it unlikely many more entries come in.  

Eight brackets will be contested in the women’s freestyle division at the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. Each champion in Louisville will face the 2025 U.S. Open champion in a best-of-three series at Final X to determine the Team USA representative at the 2025 Senior World Championships. Final X will take place on June 14 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Two Final X matchups are already determined in women’s freestyle, 57 kg and 65 kg, which removes those weight classes from the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament field.

Athletes must qualify to enter the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament field. To review the Senior World Team selection process in each discipline, including Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament qualification criteria, visit the Team Selection Criteria page.

A list of qualified athletes for Louisville post-U.S. Open is available on themat.com. A complete list of entries as of May 12 is available below.

Louisville will see the much-anticipated return of 2024 Olympic champion Amit Elor, who has taken nearly 10 months off from active competition since winning her gold medal in Paris. Elor is among the top pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world and is the clear class of the tournament.

In addition to her Olympic gold, Elor is a two-time Senior World champion and six-time age-group World champion. She became the youngest Olympic wrestling champion in U.S. history last summer at age 20. Elor returns to 72 kg in Louisville, the weight where she secured her two Senior World titles and feels most comfortable. She dropped to 68 kg during the Paris Olympic year.

Tokyo Olympian Jacarra Winchester headlines the 55 kg weight class. Winchester is a five-time U.S. World Team member and two-time medalist at the World Championships. She was World champion in 2019 and World runner-up in 2023. At this year’s U.S. Open, Winchester competed at 57 kg, making it to the finals before forfeiting to Amanda Martinez.

Two more former Senior World Team members are in the mix—Areana Villaescusa (2024) and Dymond Guilford (2022). Both women finished in third place at the U.S. Open after battling back from semifinal losses.

Five past age-group World champions have entered the event—Emily Shilson at 50 kg, Sage Mortimer and Katie Gomez at 53 kg, Ronna Gross at 55 kg and Yelena Makoyed at 76 kg.

Nine runners-up from the U.S. Open have sights set on redemption and a Final X berth—Erin Golston at 50 kg, Felicity Taylor at 53 kg, Everest Leydecker and Winchester at 55 kg, Michaela Beck at 59 kg, Adaugo Nwachukwu at 62 kg, Solin Piearcy at 68 kg, Skylar Grote at 72 kg and Makoyed at 76 kg.

Six athletes are entered in a powerful 53 kg field. Felicity Taylor was the highest placer from the U.S Open, finishing as runner-up to her former Iowa teammate Brianna Gonzalez. Two-time age-group World medalist and 2021 U17 World champion Katie Gomez was third in Las Vegas and was a Final X qualifier in 2023. Reigning U23 World champion Sage Mortimer will have a say in the outcome here. Other registered athletes are recent Pan American Championships bronze medalist Jaslynn Gallegos, NCWWC champion Sydney Petzinger and Salyna Shotwell.

Olympian Jacarra Winchester dropping down to 55 kg adds to an already deep 55 kg bracket. Top challengers to Winchester will be the reigning World Team member in this weight class Areana Villaescusa, U.S. Open runner-up Everest Leydecker and two-time age-group World medalist Amani Jones. Six-time age-group World Team member Ronna Gross has competed sparingly the past couple of years but has the potential to shake things up.

The 76 kg weight class continues to be one of the deepest domestically. 2024 U23 World champion and U.S. Open runner-up Yelena Makoyed is the odds-on favorite but will be pushed by the likes of 2022 World Team member Dymond Guilford, plus U20 World bronze medalists Tristan Kelly and Naomi Simon. The wild card here is two-time NCWWC champion Marlynne Deede, who was fourth at the U.S. Open.

The Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament is scheduled for at 10 a.m. (ET) start time on Friday, May 16, with preliminaries and quarterfinal matches. The semifinals will follow at 4 p.m. (ET) on Friday. The women’s freestyle finals will begin at Noon (ET) on Saturday, May 17.

FloWrestling will serve as the host broadcast partner for the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. Fans can watch the event live or on-demand at FloWrestling.com.

Online results for the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament will be available on USA Bracketing, USA Wrestling’s new best-in-class event management software.

For more information about the Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, please visit usawrestlingevents.com.