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Paris 2024 Olympics: New Record for Israel

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Hebrew Nugget:

Paris 2024 Olympics: New Record for Israel

People running in a competition
Saturday, 3rd of August, was a historic day at the Paris 2024 Olympics: Israel won two silver medals מדליות (meh-dahl-yoht) and one gold medal, all in one day. The following Saturday, Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics team won its first-ever silver medal in the group competition, second only to China. These amazing achievements brought Israel’s total medal count in these Olympic Games to seven, setting a new record שיא (see) for the young state. Three Israeli judokas won Olympic medals earlier in the games: Inbar Lanir and Raz Hershko won silver, and Peter Paltchik won bronze.

Israel’s Winning Streak

The incredible winning streak on Saturday (3.8.24) began with the semi finals of IQFoil windsurfing גלישת רוח (glee-shaht roo-ahch) in Marseille. Both Sharon Kantor (21) and Tom Reuveny (24) secured their spots in the finals one after the other, despite the races being postponed due to poor weather conditions. Then came the women’s windsurfing finals, where Sharon Kantor – showing great skill and maneuvering abilities – won the silver כסף (keh-sehf) medal, making her the first Israeli woman to achieve this feat. An hour later, Tom Reuveny competed in the men’s windsurfing finals and won the gold זהב (zah-hahv) medal, twenty years after his coach Gal Friedman won it himself in Athens. Reuveny gave the nation a much-needed uplifting moment as the national anthem “התקווה” (Hatikvah, “The Hope”) was played during the medal ceremony, giving us all hope in a broader sense. A few hours later, Artem Dolgopyat (27) competed in the men’s artistic gymnastics התעמלות מכשירים (heet-ahm-loot mahch-shee-reem) finals, and his outstanding floor exercise earned him the silver medal, the third Olympic medal of the day. Dolgopyat has already won several gold and silver medals at world and European championships אליפויות (ah-lee-foo-yoht), including a gold medal in gymnastics at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This makes him the first Israeli athlete ספורטאי (sphor-tah-yee) to win medals at consecutive Olympic games. President Isaac Herzog called all eleven medal winners (six individual athletes and the gymnastics team of five female athletes) to congratulate them on their achievements, saluting them on behalf of the nation.

A New Dawn For Israeli Athletes

To understand how valuable these wins are for Israel, we have to go back in time. Israel began to participate להשתתף (leh-heesh-tah-tehf) in the Olympic Games in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. This was only four years after the country was founded, three years after the War of Independence ended (1947-1949), so naturally, sports were an underdeveloped field. Most of the country’s funds were spent on immigrant absorption, construction, education, security (strengthening the IDF) and culture. For decades the atmosphere אווירה (ah-vee-rah) in Israel towards the Olympics was: “the most important thing is to participate” or “it’s an honor to even send athletes to the Olympics”. Then came along the judoka Yael Arad – and the rest is history.

Our First Olympic Medalist

Yael Arad was born in 1967 in Tel Aviv. Her parents Aryeh and Nurit Arad were successful journalists עיתונאים (ee-toh-nah-eem), but they were the first to recognize and support Arad’s growing passion for judo. She began training at the age of eight, and within two years she was ranked second in Israel in her weight category. She won her first international title in 1984 at the age of seventeen, and later that year she came in seventh in the 1984 World Judo Championship in Vienna. She underwent training in Japan, where the martial art אומנות לחימה (oh-mah-noot leh-chee-mah) originated. In the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, forty years after Israel began participating in the Olympics, Arad competed and won a silver medal, thus becoming the first Israeli athlete to win an Olympic medal. She made the impossible possible, and paved the way for future Israeli athletes to realize their dream of becoming world champions.

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