An Israeli wrestling star was born in Nice, France, on Saturday: Mitchell Louis Finesilver won the bronze medal in the freestyle 74-kg. weight class, defeating an Azerbaijani opponent at the elite wrestling competition.“I have a lot of pride being able to represent Israel on the world’s stage,” he said. “It’s amazing to be able to represent my culture and heritage.”
“I feel as though I competed decently,” Finesilver told The Jerusalem Post. “I felt better as the day went
on, though. Lots of work to still be done. I would love to represent Israel at the Olympics, but I still need
to qualify [in] the weight first. Those tournaments will be held in March and April.”He is the first Israeli to win a medal at the competition in nearly a decade.The US-born Finesilver prevailed over Azerbaijan’s Joshgun Azimov 2-1 for the bronze medal. His 5-2 win over
Poland’s Kamil Rybicki to enter the bronze medal round was a thriller that prompted FloWrestling journalist
David Bray to tweet: “Mitch Finesilver will wrestle for bronze. Looked solid in that last match.”Finesilver beat Azerbaijan’s Gadzhimurad Omarov 4-2 in his opening match. Azerbaijan produces some of the
world’s top wrestlers.Kyle Dake, a two-time world champion from the US, defeated Finesilver 11-0 in the second round. Dake went on
to win the Henri Deglane tournament.In his “wrestleback” bracket match, where wrestlers who were defeated on the way to the finals seek to secure
a bronze medal, Finesilver prevailed over his French opponent Charles Afa 12-1. Finesilver sported a red and
white singlet with a Star of David on his wrestling uniform.The tournament in Nice is named after Henri Deglane (1902-1975), who was a French Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.Finesilver earned All-American status as a Duke University grappler at the 2019 National Collegiate Athletic
Association Wrestling Championships.“It’s an unbelievable [feeling] honestly,” Finesilver told GoDuke.com at the time. “I worked my whole career
and whole life for this. Lots and lots of hard work. Lots of late nights. Lots of workouts. A lot of blood,
tears and sweat. To reach, at least some degree, my goal is pretty awesome and unbelievable.”The Duke Chronicle said: “The start of the 2019-2020 season marks the beginning of the end of the Finesilver
era of Duke wrestling.”Finesilver has a fraternal twin brother, Zach, who also wrestled for Duke.A second set of fraternal twins from the family, Josh and Matt Finesilver, currently compete for Duke, a
prestigious university in Durham, North Carolina.The Duke Blue Devils, wrote the paper, “enjoyed two years of having four gritty and talented wrestlers all
from the same household.”Finesilver was a two-time Colorado State champion and four-time state qualifier. The 149-pound wrestler was
named the 2018-19 Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He also received an ACC
postgraduate scholarship. Finesilver majored in evolutionary anthropology.