2024 Olympics: 68 kg Women's Freestyle Results and Notes

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight.

Past weight classes

Greco-Roman: 60 kg

Greco-Roman: 130 kg

Round of 16

Amit Elor (USA) over Buse Tosun (Turkey)  10-2

Wiktoria Choluj (Poland) over Feng Zhou (China)  10-3

Nisha Dahiya (India) over Tetiana Sova-Rizhko (Ukraine)  6-4

Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) over Irina Ringaci (Moldova)  10-6

Koumba Larroque (France) over Tayla Ford (New Zealand)  6-0

Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) over Linda Morais (Canada)  8-2

Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Soleymi Caraballo (Venezuela)  10-0

Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia)  8-3

Quarterfinals

Amit Elor (USA) over Wiktoria Choluj (Poland)  8-0

Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) over Nisha Dahiya (India)  10-8

Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) over Koumba Larroque (France)  6-2

Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Nonoka Ozaki (Japan)  8-6
 

Semifinals

Amit Elor (USA) over Sol Gum Pak (North Korea)  10-0

Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria)  3-1
 

Repechage

Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia)  6-0

Buse Tosun (Turkey) over Wiktoria Choluj (Poland)  4-3
 

Bronze Medal Matches

Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria)  3-0

Buse Tosun (Turkey) over Sol Gum Pak (North Korea)  4-2
 

Gold Medal Matches

Amit Elor (USA) over Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan)  3-0
 

Notes:

With the win, Amit Elor became America's youngest Olympic gold medalist (20 and 7 months), beating Kyle Snyder by two months. 

Elor is currently riding an undefeated streak that dates back to the U17 world semifinals in 2019. 

For the second straight Olympic Games, an American has won the 68 kg weight class - as Tamyra Mensah-Stock won it in 2020. 

At the time, Elor was the third American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling.

Elor’s gold medal gives her nine World/Olympic gold medals across four age groups. It’s her third at the Senior level. 

Silver medalist Meerim Zhumanazarova captured her second Olympic medal. She was a bronze medalist in 2020 and the only woman from that awards stand to make it again in 2024. 

Kyrgyzstan is still searching for their first Olympic gold medal (in any sport). For the second Olympic Games in a role a women’s freestyler from Kyrgyzstan fell in the finals. 

Zhumanazarov became the first Kyrgyzstani woman to win multiple Olympic medals (another would follow) in wrestling. She is now a three-time World/Olympic medalist.

Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki is a four-time World/Olympic medalist after her bronze medal-winning performance. Ozaki’s four medals have come at three different weights (62, 65, 68). 

Bronze medalist Buse Tosun (Turkiye) is also now a four-time World/Olympic medalist. 

Tosun was one of only four Olympic medalists from Europe in women’s wrestling in 2024. 

The opening round of competition saw a pair of past world champions go down with Tosun and Irina Ringaci losing. 

Tosun fell to Elor in a rare first round matchup between returning world champs. 

For the second straight Olympic Games, the American representative drew a world champion in the first round. In 2020, Mensah-Stock was paired with the reigning Olympic gold medalist and 2017 world champion Sara Dosho (Japan). 

The Olympic podium was relatively young with Elor (20), Zhumanazarov (24), Ozaki (21), and Tosun (28). 

2020 Olympic silver medalist Blessing Oborududu was not able to get back to the medal stand as she fell in a bronze medal match to Ozaki. 

Oborududu was the senior member of this weight class in age (35) and Olympic experience. She was the only wrestler in this bracket participating in her fourth Olympic Games. Feng Zhou was in her third. 

On the way to the finals, in 2020, Oborududu defeated Zhumanazarov 3-2 in the quarterfinals. This time they met in the semis and Zhumanazarova returned the favor, 3-1. 

Koumba Larroque’s opening round win (6-0 over Tayla Ford - New Zealand) accounted for the only victory for the host country in women’s wrestling. 

Five of the eight seeded wrestlers fell in the opening round - including all four on the top half of the bracket. #1 Tosun, #4 Ringaci, #5 Sova Rizko, #7 Caraballo, #8 Zhou. 

A prospect to watch for the future is North Korea’s Sol Gum Pak. The 18-year-old downed world champion and three-time world medalist, Irina Ringaci, in her first Olympic bout. 

photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com