Wrestlers · Career complete
Elena Pirozhkova
2012 World champion at 63 kg; 4x World medalist; 2x Olympian out of Greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield, MA · Greenfield HS
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 10, 2026
Elena Pirozhkova was born in Novokuznetsk, Russia, on October 13, 1986, and came to the United States with her family when she was three. They settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where she was the second oldest of nine children. Her older brother Viktor talked her into wrestling in high school. She graduated from Greenfield High School in 2005, won the USGWA National Championship that year, and moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs five months later.
In 2010 she won the U.S. Open over 2004 Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann and took the World Team Trials in Council Bluffs. At the World Championships in Moscow that September she beat Lubov Volosova of Russia 1-0, 1-0 in the semifinals. She took silver at 63 kg, about 139 pounds, losing the final to Kaori Icho of Japan. It was her first World medal. In October she won a University World title at 67 kg in Torino, and USA Wrestling named her its 2010 Women's Wrestler of the Year.
She won the 2012 Olympic Team Trials at 63 kg over 2011 World bronze medalist Adeline Gray in two straight matches and placed 14th in London. That September she won the World title at 63 kg, beating Min-Wen Hou of Chinese Taipei, Kayoko Kudo of Japan, Luozhuoma Xi of China and, in the final, Taybe Yusein of Bulgaria 2-1, 2-5, 1-0. She added World bronze in 2013 and a second silver in 2014, losing the final 4-2 to Yulia Tkach of Ukraine.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio she won her first two matches at 63 kg and finished fifth, losing the bronze-medal match by fall to Yekaterina Larionova of Kazakhstan. She retired that year, moved to New Jersey for chiropractic school, and in August 2019 became the first head coach of the New Jersey City University women's wrestling program.
She lives in New Jersey, where she built the women's wrestling team at New Jersey City University, the first women's college wrestling team in the state.
Results
| Season | Level | Event | Weight | Place | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Age group | USGWA National Championships | 1st | Won as a high school senior; the title led to an invitation to the Olympic Training Center | |
| 2010 | Senior | U.S. Open, Cleveland | 63 kg | 1st | Second career U.S. Open title; def. Sara McMann in the final |
| 2010 | Senior | U.S. World Team Trials, Council Bluffs, IA | 63 kg | 1st | Def. Veronica Carlson of the United States in two straight bouts of the best-of-three final; third U.S. World Team |
| 2010 | Senior | World Championships, Moscow | 63 kg | 2nd | Def. Tatyana Zakharova (Kazakhstan), Maria Mendez (Spain), Katerina Lopez (Cuba) and Lubov Volosova (Russia) 1-0, 1-0; lost the final to Kaori Icho (Japan) 1-1, 0-6; first World medal |
| 2010 | Senior | University World Championships, Torino, Italy | 67 kg | 1st | Second career University World title |
| 2011 | Senior | Pan American Games, Guadalajara | 63 kg | 2nd | |
| 2012 | Senior | U.S. Olympic Team Trials | 63 kg | 1st | Def. Adeline Gray 1-0, 4-0 and 1-0, 3-1 in the best-of-three final; entered as the No. 1 seed on her December U.S. Open title |
| 2012 | Senior | Olympic Games, London | 63 kg | 14th | |
| 2012 | Senior | World Championships | 63 kg | 1st | 4-0. Sept. 29, 2012; pinned Min-Wen Hou (Chinese Taipei) in 33 seconds, then def. Kayoko Kudo (Japan), Luozhuoma Xi (China) and Taybe Yusein (Bulgaria) 2-1, 2-5, 1-0 in the final |
| 2013 | Senior | World Championships | 63 kg | 3rd | |
| 2014 | Senior | World Championships, Uzbekistan | 63 kg | 2nd | Beat four top-ten opponents to reach the final, then lost 4-2 to Yulia Tkach (Ukraine); fourth career World medal |
| 2015 | Senior | U.S. World Team Trials, Madison, WI | 69 kg | Entered the Championship Series automatically on a U.S. Open title and moved up from 63 kg for the Trials; the result is not stated on the pages read | |
| 2016 | Senior | Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro | 63 kg | 5th | 2-2. Aug. 18, 2016; def. Taybe Yusein (Bulgaria) 3-1 in the round of 16 and 2015 World champion Battsetseg Soronzonbold (Mongolia) 3-1 in the quarterfinals, lost the semifinal 3-1 to Maria Mamashuk (Belarus), then lost the bronze-medal match by fall to Yekaterina Larionova (Kazakhstan) |
What we could not confirm
Anything not on this page, a high school record, a final score, a season, was left out because no primary source stated it when this was written. If you have a bracket, a program, or a clipping, send it and the page gets the number.
Sources
- http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/126543 · Born Oct. 13, 1986 in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Russia; competed for the United States at the 2012 Olympics (14th at 63 kg) and the 2016 Olympics (fifth); silver at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara; affiliated with Gator Wrestling Club
- https://www.themat.com/news/2012/may/18/elena-pirozhkova-understands-w-25100 · Emigrated at age three; family settled in Greenfield, Mass.; second oldest of nine children; brother Viktor suggested wrestling; won the 2005 USGWA National Championship and moved to the Olympic Training Center five months after graduating high school; won the 2012 Olympic Team Trials over Adeline Gray 1-0, 4-0 and 1-0, 3-1; lost to Kaori Icho in the 2010 World final in Moscow
- https://www.themat.com/news/2012/september/29/world-champion--american-elena-25583 · 2012 World title at 63 kg: fall in 0:33 over Min-Wen Hou (Chinese Taipei), wins over Kayoko Kudo (Japan) and Luozhuoma Xi (China), and a 2-1, 2-5, 1-0 final over Taybe Yusein (Bulgaria)
- https://www.themat.com/news/2011/june/15/elena-pirozhkova-named-2010-wo-23731 · 2010 USA Wrestling Women's Wrestler of the Year; 2010 World silver in Moscow with a 1-0, 1-0 semifinal over Lubov Volosova; 2010 U.S. Open title over Sara McMann; 2010 World Team Trials in Council Bluffs over Veronica Carlson; second University World title at 67 kg in Torino; Olympic Training Center resident since graduating high school in 2005
- https://www.themat.com/news/2010/september/11/pirozhkova-reaches-finals--pad-22493 · Sept. 11, 2010, Moscow: Pirozhkova beat two-time World silver medalist Lubov Volosova of Russia 1-0, 1-0 in the World Championships semifinals at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. and advanced to the final against Kaori Icho of Japan
- https://www.win-magazine.com/2014/09/12/pirozhkova-comes-up-short-after-murderers-row-competition-at-worlds/ · 2014 World silver at 63 kg in Uzbekistan, 4-2 loss to Yulia Tkach (Ukraine); fourth career World medal; 2012 World title, 2010 silver, 2013 bronze; emigrated from Russia at three
- https://www.win-magazine.com/2015/06/03/pirozhkova-gray-headline-womens-world-team-trials/ · 2015 World Team Trials in Madison, Wis., June 13-14: Pirozhkova entered the Championship Series at 69 kg after competing at 63 kg
- https://www.masslive.com/sports/2016/08/rio_2016_greenfields_elena_pir.html · MassLive, Aug. 2016: Pirozhkova beat Bulgaria's Taybe Yusein 3-1 in the round of 16 and Mongolia's Battsetseg Soronzonbold, the 2015 World champion at 63 kg, by the same score in the quarterfinals, lost her semifinal 3-1 to Maria Mamashuk of Belarus, and lost the bronze-medal match to Kazakhstan's Yekaterina Larionova by fall
- https://recorder.com/2020/10/21/elena-pirozhkova-feature-36781405/ · Graduated Greenfield High School in 2005; retired in 2016 and moved to New Jersey to earn a chiropractic degree; hired in August 2019 as the first head women's wrestling coach at New Jersey City University STALENESS: this October 2020 feature and the March 2021 ABC7 story are the most recent pages found for her role. Repeated searches turned up no 2025 or 2026 page, and New Jersey City University athletics merged into Kean on July 1, 2026, so its site no longer carries a coaching page. The where_now sentence is held to what these pages state.
- https://abc7ny.com/post/new-jersey-city-university-womens-wrestling-championship-history-month/10385412/ · NJCU women's wrestling was the first women's college team in New Jersey, with Pirozhkova as head coach; the men's and women's programs both started in 2019
- https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2012/07/31/hubbub-elena-pirozhkova/ · Grew up in Greenfield, Mass., one of nine children, and was the top-ranked American at 63 kg going into the 2012 Olympics
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