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American-Israeli Amit Elor Makes History as Youngest US Wrestler to Win Gold at Olympics
Amit Elor of the United States celebrates winning gold against Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the women’s freestyle 68kg wrestling finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 6, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Arlette Bashizi
American-Israeli wrestler Amit Elor won the gold medal on Tuesday at the Olympics Games in Paris in the women’s freestyle wrestling 68-kg finals, making her the youngest wrestler in the history of the US to win a gold at the Olympics and also a first-time winner.
The 20-year-old, who is competing in the Olympic Games as part of Team USA, extended her five-year winning streak and also became the third woman from the US to win Olympic gold in wrestling, as well as the youngest US woman to medal in wrestling at the Olympics.
She beat Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan 3-0 at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris after taking a lead early on in the match with a takedown and defending herself against her opponent’s attacks throughout the remainder of the match. Zhumanazarova became the first Kyrgyz athlete to win two Olympic medals in any sport. The bronze medal went to Buse Cavusoglu of Turkey.
Elor was born in California on New Year’s Day 2004. She lives in New York, is the youngest of six siblings, and started wrestling at the age of four. Her late father Yair and mother Elana are both from Ashkelon and immigrated to the United States from Israel in the 1980s. Her brother Oshry was killed in a home invasion in 2018 and Yair died in 2022 at the age of 64.
Amit spoke only Hebrew until she was two years old and has trained in Israel while visiting family. She said in 2022, “I love Israel. In some ways I feel like I am representing them also [when competing].” Both of her grandfathers are Holocaust survivors.
After her Olympic win, the athlete admitted that before her match, she said affirmations to herself about becoming an Olympic champion.
“You know what I did today actually, which is also going to sound crazy, to help myself — I constantly, throughout the day, told myself ‘You’re gonna become an Olympic champion today.’ Literally, again and again and again. I did not stop,” she said.
“Normally I don’t do that in competitions,” she added. “But today, I was like, I don’t wanna get in my head. So I was like, again and again, ‘You’re gonna become an Olympic champion.’ And I was like, I don’t care if it’s crazy. I need to believe this. I need to go out there confident. And it helped me. I was able to go out there, and get my ties and not get in my head too much.”
At the 2022 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Amit won gold and became the youngest US wrestler, male or female, to become a world champion. She is a two-time world champion in the 72-kg category — which she also won in 2023 — and won senior, under-23, and under-20 world titles in the span of three months in 2022, making her the youngest American world champion at the age of 18. She retained her titles in 2023 when she won the Pan American Championships.
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White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy
FILE PHOTO: Adam Boehler, the CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, US, April 14, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Adam Boehler to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the White House said on Saturday.
Boehler, who has been working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, will continue hostage-related work as a so-called “special government employee,” a position that would not need Senate confirmation.
“Adam Boehler will continue to serve President Trump as a special government employee focused on hostage negotiations,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Adam played a critical role in negotiating the return of Marc Fogel from Russia. He will continue this important work to bring wrongfully detained individuals around the world home.”
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Boehler withdrew his nomination to avoid divesting from his investment company. The move was unrelated to the controversy sparked by his discussions with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“He still has the utmost confidence of President Trump,” said the official.
“This gives me the best ability to help Americans held abroad as well as work across agencies to achieve President Trump’s objectives,” Boehler told Reuters in a brief statement.
Boehler recently held direct meetings with Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza. The discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US brands as terrorist organizations.
The talks angered some Senate Republicans and some Israeli leaders. According to Axios, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer expressed his displeasure to Boehler in a tense phone call last week.
Boehler was given permission from the Trump administration to engage directly with Hamas, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week, calling the talks a “one-off situation” that had not borne fruit.
Boehler has been credited with helping secure the release of Fogel, a US schoolteacher who was freed by Russia in February after three and a half years in prison.
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Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy addressing the 38th Zionist Congress. Photo: Screenshot.
i24 News – A French intellectual superstar and a pair of German officials announced that they withdrew from a conference on antisemitism organized by the Israeli government, citing the participation of far-right figures in the Jerusalem event.
Iconic thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was set to deliver the conference’s keynote address, opted out upon learning that Marion Marechal and Jordan Bardella from France’s far-right National Rally party were among the other speakers.
Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, “has decided not to attend,” his representatives told Haaretz.
“He was unaware of the other attendees when he accepted the invitation, and upon learning who the other speakers were, he decided to withdraw.”
Volker Beck, a former Green Party parliamentarian who chairs the Germany-Israel Friendship Society (DIG) also announced he was cancelling his attendance. “If we associate ourselves with extreme right-wing forces, we discredit our common cause; it also goes against my personal convictions and will have a negative impact on our fight against antisemitism within our societies.”
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
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