Alan Vera

Alan Ernesto Vera García (October 26, 1990 – September 23, 2024) was a Cuban-American Greco-Roman wrestler.

In 2015, he won a bronze medal at the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2016, he won a gold medal at the Pan American Wrestling Championships while competing for Cuba. He would be the Cuban national champion four times.

Later, he emigrated to the United States, moving to Jersey City, New Jersey in 2017. In 2019 he would begin competing for his adopted country.

In 2023, Vera won a bronze medal at the Pan American Championships for the United States, and in 2024, he won a silver medal at the event for Team USA.

In 2024, Vera qualified the United States for the 2024 Summer Olympics in the 97 kg division at the 2024 Pan-American Olympic Qualification Tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. Vera narrowly missed out representing the U.S. at the Olympics when he came in second place in the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials.

In 2016, Vera married to Elena Pirozhkova, a former world champion American sport wrestler and two-time Olympian.

In June 2024, the pair welcomed their first child, a daughter.

On 29 July 2024, Vera suffered cardiac arrest while playing soccer with friends. He was hospitalized and died on September 23, 2024 at the age of 33.