Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion wrestler Amit Elor faced a wave of online criticism after posting about completing a Spartan race while 29 weeks pregnant. On a recent episode of The Bader Show, Elor opened up about that decision and why she stood by it.
Elor stayed active throughout her pregnancy, wrestling on the mat until 38 weeks. The obstacle course race came about organically.
“I think I was at like 29 weeks pregnant and I’ve always wanted to do like an obstacle course race, a Spartan race,” she told host Mark Bader. “We saw that there was one nearby and me and like some friends just were like, okay, we’re going to do this. And I was like, why not? I’ll just be careful and make adjustments.”
She tackled every challenge the race put in front of her. “I went through all these different obstacles like rope climbs and rock carries, climbing over walls and this and that while I was 29 weeks pregnant,” Elor said.
The backlash followed quickly.
“I’ve definitely had those people that were judging more like, ‘Oh, she’s so selfish and irresponsible,'” she said. But Elor pushed back on that characterization. “I was actually paranoid and very careful the whole time, even though it looked pretty scary to the average person, I would say.”
Rather than be discouraged by the criticism, Elor drew motivation from other athletes who had trained through their pregnancies.
“I definitely had a lot of people that were inspiring me while I was pregnant,” she said. “There’s a lot of CrossFit athletes that you will see them just like clean and j3rk these heavy barbells while they’re full on pregnant. So I would watch them and be like, ‘Oh, like this is totally normal. Like I’m all good. I can keep training.'”
Elor also stayed in tune with her baby throughout the entire process.
“I was really trying to listen to my body and of course pay attention to him,” she said. “He full on, you know, he’s moving and kicking and he has patterns himself too, so I could pay attention to that and constantly check in on him through the whole thing.”
She also sought guidance from her doctors along the way. One OB/GYN she worked with supported her training and explained that continuing an activity she was already comfortable with before pregnancy was generally considered safe, provided she kept paying close attention to her body.
The 22-year-old went on to compete at World Team Trials just three and a half months after giving birth, where she reached the finals. She is currently preparing for the upcoming World Championships in Kazakhstan with her sights set on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
