The Tokyo Olympics was Israel's most successful ever, with a record number of four medals and two Olympic champions. Careful estimates predict that the Paris Olympics will be even more successful.
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In the past two years, Israeli athletes have won 18 medals in world championships, five of them gold. Israel's talents in certain sports such as judo and windsurfing led to in-house competition to represent the country in the Olympics. These are the prominent candidates poised to stand on the podium in Paris, with five months left until the games begin.
The Champion Going for Double
Artem Dolgopyat | Artistic Gymnastics | Olympic Champion, World Champion in Floor Exercise
Artem Dolgopyat is the world's champion gymnast in floor exercise. On October 7, on Israel's toughest day, the Israeli Olympic champion won his first gold medal at the World Championships, further positioning himself as a top contender to become Israel's first defending Olympic gold medalist.
Just days after winning gold at the Tokyo Games, Dolgopyat was already back home training to secure his place in Paris. He is always focused, humble, and understands that hard work produces results.
In April, he will compete in the European Championships in Italy, where he will also take part in the all-around competition. After the championship, he will focus on the floor exercise, where he will increase the level of difficulty so as to be ready for the Olympic competition, and also work on the pommel horse and vault.
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Always humble and hardworking, Artem Dolgopyat
(Photo: Israel Gymnastics Federation
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Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo may have been eliminated in the early rounds in Tokyo, but he is considered a contender for a medal in Paris. British gymnast Luke Whitehouse, who defeated Dolgopyat in the floor exercise at the European Championships last year, will also provide competition in Paris. In any case, we should pay attention to the Japanese, who have yet to choose their representative for the floor exercise but are consistently medal contenders.
What will further influence the competition is the Olympic board's decision on whether to allow Russia to send a single gymnast. The International Gymnastics Federation approves individual representations, but the European federation opposes it, leaving this issue unresolved.
Dolgopyat won the gold medal at the last World Championships with what he considered a disappointing score (14.866) and beat Japanese Kazuki Minami and Kazakh Milad Karimi. It is reasonable to assume that the level will be even higher in Paris. Dolgopyat is fervently working with his coach Sergei Vaisburg on the most difficult routine (his specialty), and we will the results in the upcoming European Championship.
Linoy Ashram, and the Israeli team
Israeli National Team | Rhythmic Gymnastics | World Champion in Group All-Around
Last August, the rhythmic gymnastics national team won a historic gold medal at the Group All-Around World Championships. The team, which includes Ofir Shacham, Diana Svartzov, Hadar Friedman, Shani Baknov, Romi Pritzki, and Liza Benchuk (who was part of the gold-winning team and retired), is considered one of the best in the world.
Until last summer, they had never won the World title in Group All-Around, the only competition where Olympic medals are awarded. One of the reasons for Israel's chances of winning its first Olympic team medal comes from the fact that Russia and Belarus, two of the strongest teams in the world, will not attend the Paris competition due to sanctions imposed on them following the war in Ukraine.
Linoy Ashram, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist and the legendary coach Ayelet Zussman, will hopefully lead the team to victory. However, due to the current war, the team struggled to participate in international competitions in recent months, so the team worked vigorously in training camps. Their first competition in a while will be in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup this month in Greece, and from there the girls will continue to Sofia, Baku, and the European Championships.
Bulgaria, which won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, is considered one of the clear contenders as well as China, which competed against Israel in the last World Championship and won the silver medal. The Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, and Azerbaijani teams are also considered worthy competitors.
Although Israel's gymnastics team is the best it ever was, whether Israel wins a medal depends also on exterior factors. There is still a chance that in the political field of gymnastics, Russia and Belarus might be allowed to participate in the competition at the last minute.
The Marathon Star
Lonah Chemtai Salpeter | Athletics | Bronze Medalist at the World Marathon Championships
The Athletics Association has turned marathons into a European-dominant competition. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter has already stood on the podium with the prestigious bronze medal at the World Championships in the U.S. in 2022, and last year finished fourth in the same competition in Budapest, just 21 seconds behind the bronze.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Salpeter was in the leading quartet right up to the end but collapsed due to the intense heat. Her competition includes Kenyan World Championship silver medalist, Eliud Kipchoge, and the Israeli Gashau Ayale, who broke the Israeli record at the last Seville Marathon with an impressive time of 2:04:53 hours.
At the age of 35, Lonah Chemtai Salpeter has become one of the best long-distance runners in the world. Since the World Championships in Budapest, she has competed in relatively short distances, only returning to marathons in Tokyo. In addition, she will run the half marathon with the rest of the team at the European Championships.
Running is a field dominated by Ethiopian and Kenyan runners, whereas Europeans are realistic contenders, except perhaps for Sifan Hassan, the Dutch runner of Ethiopian origin, who is gunning for the ambitious goal of winning in the races of 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and the marathon.
The marathon in Paris is expected to present two main challenges: the tough terrain and the intense French heat of August. Therefore, Itai Magidi, an Israeli runner, developed a heat-centered training program. Salpeter's preparation includes running in Kenya with ice packs and training in an Italian camp in the town of Sestriere. Finally, some of the training will take place in Turin to get used to running on plains. In summer marathons, it's about survival, not so much about results.
Flying with a Sail
Sharon Kantor | Windsurfing | iQFoil World Champion
The women's national team coach, Shahar Zubari, has put together the best windsurfing team in the world in his two-and-a-half years in his position. In his tenure, the Israeli team won six medals in the World Championships, including two world champions (Kantor and Zubari). Each of the surfers who won medals in the World Championships - Kantor, Zubari, Katy Spychakov, and Daniela Peleg, is a serious contender for an Olympic medal, so Zubari's made a tough call.
Just a month ago, Kantor faced a challenging World Championship in the Canary Islands and managed to navigate her way to become the world champion. The young surfer (21) from Moshav Avihayil took advantage of the switch to the fast foil model that suits her form to become the world champion and a leading contender for an Olympic medal.
Kantor will compete in April in Palma de Mallorca and Hyères and will then participate in training competitions in Marseille, where the Olympic competition will also take place in five months. Emma Wilson, the British windsurfer whom Kantor managed to defeat in a photo-finish in the last World Championships, is probably her most serious rival.
Israel's ferocious female judokas
Inbar Lanir and Raz Hershko | Judo | World Champion and European Runner-Up
Raz Hershko and Inbar Lanir are the promising competitors of the Israeli Judo team. Lanir (78 kg), 23, is ranked first in the Olympic rankings, and Hershko (over 78 kg ), 25, is ranked second. Lanir made her big leap last year, winning the World Championship in Doha, the Judo World Masters, a bronze medal at the European Championship, and a silver medal at the prestigious Tokyo Grand Slam.
Hershko is one of the veterans in her category, and her list of titles from the past year is impressive and promising: European Runner-Up, third at the World Championship, and five medals in Grand Slam competitions.
The most impressive judoka in Lanir's weight category is the Italian Alice Bellandi, who won a silver medal in the last Grand Slam in Paris. Additional competition for Lanir might come from Germany (Anna Maria Wagner and Alina Bohm), Brazil (Maria Suelen Altheman and Juul Franssen), and France (Audrey Tcheumeo and Madeleine Malonga).
As for Hershko, the strongest rival, who will also fight on her turf, is the French Romane Dicko. Other names to watch out for include Kayra Ozdemir from Turkey, Kim Ha-yun from Korea, Shiyan Xu from China, and Akira Sone from Japan, the Olympic and world champion Hershko has struggled against and has never managed to defeat.
Judo is one of the cruelest sports, and that's its beauty. Lanir and Hershko do not come as favorites like Jordan Garbi, for example, but they are very strong contenders for medals. Both will be part of the first eight in the draw, so they are not expected to have too tough of a path until the quarter-finals. In any case, a competition day like Lanir's at last year's World Championships in Doha - and that's a guaranteed medal, while Hershko has established herself as a leading contender for the podium in her weight.