Israel wins record seventh Olympics medal with rythmic gymnastics silver

A record-breaking Olympics was capped for Israel’s athletes with silver in the all-around rhythmic gymnastics team competition – the country’s seventh medal overall in Paris.

The Israeli delegation took home one gold, five silvers and a bronze across four sports to make it the country’s most successful Games with more than a third of its total 20 medals in history. It also brought the total number of medals won by Jewish athletes to at least 17: six golds, six silvers and five bronze.

Completing the haul on the penultimate day of competition was the Israeli gymnastics team captained by Romi Paritzki and including Ofir Shaham, Diana Svertsov, Adar Friedmann and Shani Bakanov, who finished with a combined score of 68.850, behind gold medal-winning China’s 69.800. Italy won the bronze.

“This is a moment that can’t be described,” Friedmann said after the win, according to Haaretz. “This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened in our lives. We waited for this moment for so long and I am so happy that we succeeded in achieving it together.”

Gilad Lustig, the secretary general of Israel’s Olympic committee, drew a connection between Israel winning its seventh medal and the symbolism of Oct. 7, the date of Hamas’ surprise attack that killed over 1,200 Israelis and launched the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“It’s the most important closing of the circle, after what they tried to do to us on Oct. 7,” Lustig told Haaretz. “We are here, on the map.

“This is our victory over what happened on Oct. 7,” Lustig continued. “From the bottom of our hearts, from every team of ours, from all the people that accompanied this. The feeling of our mission is much greater, and we can seal it with the story of the seven medals. There is nothing more symbolic than that.”

The 2024 Games also saw the best single day in Olympic history for the Israelis. Tom Reuveny – who carried Israel’s flag with Paritzki into the closing ceremony on Sunday –  claimed Israel’s fourth ever Olympic gold in the iQFoil windsurfing final. Within hours,  Sharon Kantor, 21, became the first Israeli woman to win a sailing medal when she took silver and judoka Raz Hershko also claimed second spot in the women’s over 78 kilogramme category.

Fellow judokas Peter Paltchik took bronze in the 100 kilogramme category for men and Inbar Lanir went one better with a silver, showing her support for the hostages still in Gaza by wearing a yellow scrunchie. Artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat won silver in the men’s floor exercise to follow up on his gold medal performance at the 2020 Games.

Meanwhile, Australian Jessica Fox was among the Olympics legends given the honour of featuring in the closing ceremony at the Stade de France. Already one of the most successful Jewish athletes since Mark Spitz, she added two more golds to her tally of four before Paris to cement her position as the most decorated canoe shalom competitor in Olympic history. Her younger sister Naomi, 27, also took to the took step of the podium in the inaugural kayak cross event to ensure they were the first Jewish siblings to both claim gold in a single Games since Irina and Tamara Press for the Soviet union in 1964. Race walker Jemima Montag also took two medals – this time bronze – for team Australia.

US wrestler Amit Elor became Olympic champion at the age of 20, stretciijg an unbeaten record going back to 2019 to make her the youngest American wrestling champion in history. Also hearing the US anthem was Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub, part of the winning women’s foil team, while fellow countrywoman Claire Weinstein won silver as part of the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Americans Sarah Levy in the women’s rugby sevens and foil fencer Nick Itkin also took bronze.