Olympic gold medalist Amit Elor competed at the 2025 Wrestling World Team Trials while five weeks pregnant and had no idea. The reigning Olympic champion and three-time world champion revealed the remarkable story on the Bader Show, detailing a competition she barely made it through, a pregnancy she kept hidden for months, and a return to the mat that few athletes could have managed.
“I felt pretty off going into it,” Elor said of the 2025 trials. “I was super lightheaded and I didn’t have like the typical nauseous, but I was just really tired and felt super off.”
However, she tried to push through her matches.
“I felt like the challenge wasn’t even wrestling. It was just staying on my feet for 6 minutes without like collapsing.”
A blood test after the event revealed severely low iron levels, leaving her nearly anemic. That discovery led her to investigate further, and she soon learned she was pregnant. As a high-level athlete who had not had a period in three years due to the demands of training, the pieces quickly fell into place.
Elor made the immediate decision to withdraw from Final X, placing her baby’s health above all else.
“If anything would have happened because I decided to compete, I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life,” she said.
She committed to a healthy pregnancy while staying as active as her body allowed, continuing to wrestle on the mat until 38 weeks.
She gave birth naturally with no complications, and two weeks later she was back drilling. Three and a half months postpartum, she entered the 2026 World Team Trials and won, facing another new mother in the finals.
When asked how she felt compared to competing while unknowingly pregnant the year before, her answer was quick: “10 times better.”
Part of that improvement came from her iron levels, which she said are now the highest they have ever been.
“It’s kind of like my body in the pregnancy just like reset everything.”
Making weight at 158 lbs (72 kilos) while breastfeeding came with its own complications. A hormone called relaxin, which loosens joints during pregnancy, remains in the body while nursing, causing discomfort in fingers, elbows, and joints throughout.
Still, once training picked up, her weight dropped faster than it typically had before.
Now 22 years old and a mother to her son, Elor is focused on the 2026 World Championships in Kazakhstan, with her mother and baby making the trip alongside her. She is clear about what pulls her back to the mat each day.
“I don’t want to ever tell him that he was the reason why I stopped going after my dreams.”
