Jewish Olympic wrestling champion Amit Elor condemns antisemitism, after avoiding subject ahead of Paris
Gold medalist Amit Elor stands on the podium during the wrestling women’s freestyle 68kg medal ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, Aug. 6, 2024. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
(JTA) — U.S. Olympic wrestling gold medalist Amit Elor spoke out against antisemitism on Thursday, after largely refraining from discussing her Jewish identity ahead of the games.
“Eighty years ago my grandparents survived the Holocaust, but antisemitism is still all around us,” Elor said in a video posted to Instagram and TikTok. The clip included a comment directed against her saying “you belong in the gas chamber” with an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, posted by an account featuring exclusively anti-Israel posts.
“My grandparents won. I won,” Elor said, holding up her gold medal, her face still battered from her Olympic bouts.
“Humanity will win. Never again,” she said.
In the video, Elor wears a yellow ribbon, a symbol supporting hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Both of Elor’s grandfathers moved to Israel after surviving the Holocaust, and she was born to Israeli parents in the United States.
Elor posts frequently on social media, where she has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, but had held off on posting about Jewish issues and Israel going into the Olympics.
After Oct. 7, she posted a few apolitical messages that were intended to convey hope and strength after the Hamas invasion. She received “horrifying, scary messages” in response, including death threats, she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ahead of the games. Other apolitical posts, like saying “Happy Hanukkah” or writing her name in Hebrew, also drew racist remarks, she said, prompting her to avoid the subject.
“It’s important for me to be true to myself. I want to be real,” Elor said then. “Everything in me wanted to speak up and express how I feel about the situation, but there are things I completely avoid — especially after 1972 in Munich, what happened to Israeli athletes. It’s just not smart for me at the moment.”
In addition to antisemitism, Elor faced personal tragedy on her way to the Olympics. Her older brother, Oshry, was murdered in 2018, and her father, Yair, passed away suddenly in 2022.
Elor emerged as one of the most dominant American athletes at the games in Paris, winning freestyle wrestling’s 68-kilogram weight class, becoming the youngest U.S. Olympic gold medalist in history and extending a five-year undefeated streak.
Her victory was celebrated in Israeli media, and after winning the gold medal, she was photographed holding a yellow hostages ribbon. Athletes were not allowed to wear the pins in Paris as part of a blanket ban on political displays.
She is the first American wrestler identifying as Jewish to win the Olympics since Henry Wittenberg in 1948.
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