Greenfield’s Elena Pirozhkova will have her work cut out for her today in the 63-kilogram (138 pounds) class of the Olympic wrestling tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Pirozhkova, who is ranked 12th in the world in the 69-kilogram class, had dropped down a weight for the Olympics. However, it doesn’t appear that the drop will make her road to a potential medal any easier. In fact, quite the contrary.
Pirozhkova, 29, did receive a first-round bye and will open her quest for a gold medal against Taybe Yusein of Bulgaria in the Round of 16 expected to start at 8:24 a.m.
The match — along with all wrestling matches — will be streamed live online at www.nbcolympics.com. All wrestling matches scheduled for TV coverage will be shown on NBC Sports Network.
Yusein will provide a stern opening test for Pirozhkova. Yusein placed second in the 2012 and 2013 World Championships, third in the 2014 and 2015 World Championships and was Junior World champion in 2011.
If the Greenfield woman advances to the quarters, she’ll likely face Battsetseg Soronzonboldyn of Mongolia, the world’s top-ranked wrestler in the 63 kg class and the current world champion. Soronzonbold goes up against Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu in her Round of 16 match.
Quarterfinal matches are set to begin at 9:44 a.m., with semifinals taking to the to mat at 10:24 a.m. The gold-medal match is scheduled to take place at 3:50 p.m.
Pirozhkova is an eight-time world-team member and four-time world medalist, winning gold in 2012. She finished 14th in her Olympic debut in London in 2012.
At least one media outlet believes Pirozhkova has a legitimate chance to medal.
According to the ‘Others of Note’ section of a wrestling preview, “This is the second Olympics for (Pirozhkova),” wrote Mister Spey of the Bloody Elbow blog on www.sbnation.com. “She has medals in four different world championships and is as much a medal contender as anyone in the field.”
Other contenders include former world champion Yulia Tkach of Ukraine (ranked No. 4 in the world at 63 kg), Anastasija Grigorjeva of Latvia (world No. 3) and Danielle Lappage of Canada (No. 6).