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:

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.