Top competitor Elisabeth Clay has been out of action for a little while now due to pregnancy and childbirth, but she’s just announced that her return will take place at the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship 2024. The annual tournament is an incredible challenge for any competitor anyway, but even more than usual for Clay as she became a mother for the first time less than three months before it takes place. Along with her husband, fellow elite competitor Danilo Moreira, Clay welcomed her first child on August 19th, 2024 and the black belts will take to the mats at the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship on November 3rd.
Clay made waves in the sport as a top brown belt in 2020 and was always clearly going to do big things once she hit the highest level. She received her black belt at the end of that year and has become a prolific competitor, but the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship has some special significance. It was the site of her first major win at the highest level, as she left the event in 2021 as the champion at both medium-heavyweight and in the absolute division. Two gold medals alone would’ve been a fantastic performance or a new black belt, but Clay also submitted all six of her opponents as well.
She returned the following year and enjoyed similar success, winning gold medals at middleweight and in the absolute. With four titles in total from the event, Clay is one of the most successful competitors in the tournament’s history at the age of just 24. Although this edition will be a completely different challenge to her other appearances, Clay will still be one of the favorites on paper. Many female athletes take time away in the middle of their careers to have children, but not many make their return as quickly as Clay is planning to and it’ll be interesting to see how she performs in her first matches in almost a year.
Elisabeth Clay announced the news that she would make her return to competition at the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship 2024 in a recent post to her official Instagram account:
