In the latter half of 2022, Elisabeth Clay had the best run of her career, winning her weight and the open class at the Pans and Worlds No-Gi. She won these event in impressive fashion, finishing nine out of her ten opponents for a 90% submission rate. Her performances brought her total medal count at major no-gi events to seven. Though Elisabeth had competed well in gi events, her best finishes had been silver medals at the 2021 Pans and 2022 Brazilian Nationals, results she hoped to improve upon in 2023.

To start 2023, Elisabeth competed in the middleweight division at the Europeans in Paris, France. After competing in her weight class and the open class, she came home with a bronze medal. The Pans were a very different story, however. Elisabeth defeated Raquel Canuto and Thamara Ferreira by points and then submitted Thalyta Silva in the final with a kneebar to win her first major title in the gi.

“I felt great in weight class. I think some of the small adjustments I’ve made showed and now I see some others I need to make and I’ll be working on those. It felt great to win my first major title in the gi. Hopefully it’s just the first of many.”

The submission win over Thalyta Silva was one of five submissions in the 2023 Pans finals. It was also a rematch from the 2022 Worlds quarterfinals, where Thalyta defeated Elisabeth on points. Elisabeth commented on the match, stating, “I didn’t make any adjustments specifically for her, just overall. But there wasn’t anything major I changed, just some little things.”

Now with her first major gi championship under her belt, Elisabeth will travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 2023 Brazilian Nationals. In 2022, Elisabeth took second, losing a close match in the medium-heavy final to Sabatha Lais. The Brasileiros are lauded as an event with an electrifying atmosphere, something Elisabeth is looking forward to.

“The environment at Brasileiros is different than any other tournament I’ve been to. The closest thing to it is Worlds but even then it’s different than that. I’m excited to go back and compete and be there again.”

Despite being a middleweight, Elisabeth competes not only in her weight class at the major gi and no-gi tournaments but also in the open class divisions. So far she’s collected three open class gold medals at major tournaments, two at the Pans No-Gi and one at the Worlds No-Gi.

“I definitely want to win the open class at a major in the gi. I’m still at the point where I need to focus more on my weight class rather than the open, but it’s still important to me,” explained Elisabeth. “I feel like I just haven’t gotten it down yet in the open class in the gi but I just need to keep working at it.”

You can watch Elisabeth Clay compete in the middleweight division at the upcoming Brazilian Nationals on Saturday May 6th. The entire event can be streamed exclusively on FloGrappling.