Portal:Sports In Israel
From JudaismWiki
Israelis are avid sports fans who are primarily interested in soccer and in basketball, including American basketball. Military service, which prevents young men during the ages of 18 to 21 from training when they are in their physical prime, accounts for the fact that Israel has not produced more sports champions. However, Israel sends athletes to the Olympic and the Asian Games. Since 1932, the finest amateur Jewish athletes have been competing in Israel in the Maccabiah, a kind of Jewish Olympics.
At the Munich Olympics in August, 1972, Arab terrorists entered the Israeli quarters at the Olympic Village and held members of the Israeli Olympic team as hostages, demanding the release of fellow Arab terrorists jailed in Israel. The Israeli government refused to meet their demand, and after nightfall the German police took the terrorists and their hostages to a nearby airfield from where they expected to fly out of Germany. The police opened fire on the terrorists in an attempt to release the prisoners. Eleven Israeli athletes perished in the melee. The entire Olympiad came to a halt with a memorial in honor of the victims, after which the games were resumed.
In the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, a young Israeli woman, Yael Arad, finally brought an Olympic medal back to her country, when she won the silver in judo. In recent years, some of the former Soviet Union athletes and coaches have immigrated to Israel, raising expectations for more Olympic medals.
Israel won its first Olympic gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, when Gal Friedman sailed into fame. Another Israeli, Arik Ze’evi, took the bronze in 100kg judo. Other Jewish gold medalists were Scott Goldblatt, USA in swimming 4X200 freestyle relay; Lenny Krayzelburg, USA in swimming 4x100 medley relay; Jason Lezak, USA in swimming, 4x100 medley relay; Nicolas Massu, Chile, in tennis, singles and doubles. Adriana Behar, Brazil, took the silver in beach volleyball, and Gavin Fingleson, Australia, in baseball. Other Jewish bronze medalists were Robert Dover, USA, in riding, team dressage; Sada Jacobson, USA, in fencing, individual saber; Deena Kastor, USA, in marathon; Jason Lezak, USA, in swimming, 4x100 freestyle relay; Sarah Poewe, Germany, in swimming, 4x100 medley relay; and Sergei Sharikov, Russia, in fencing, team saber.
