Meet the 20 Jewish Olympians who won medals in Paris
Athletes from Australia, the USA and Israel struck gold (and silver and bronze) in the 2024 Games
With six gold medals, seven silvers and five bronzes between them, this was a bumper Olympics for Jewish athletes from the United States, Australia and Israel, and it will go down in history that two (Jewish) sisters won three gold medals between them. Israel racked up seven medals, its most ever in a single Olympics, winning three medals on one day. The country now has 20 Olympic medals, including nine in judo and five in sailing.
GOLD MEDALLISTS
Jessica Fox (two gold medals)
Australian canoe paddler Jessica Fox is regarded by many as the best ever in her sport. Fox, 30, added two more gold medals to her collection in Paris, one in the women’s kayak slalom and one in the canoe slalom. She is the most decorated Olympic canoe slalom competitor ever, and the only Australian Olympian in history with six individual medals. She was as one of Australia’s flag bearers in the Paris opening ceremony.
Noemie Fox
Noemie Fox, Jessica Fox’s younger sister, won her first-ever Olympic medal, a gold in the inaugural kayak cross event. Fox, 27, and her sister join a rare class of Jewish siblings to win medals at the same Olympics. They are likely the first Jewish siblings to each win gold at the same Games since sisters Tamara and Irina Press did so in 1960 and 1964 in track and field events for the Soviet Union.
Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub
The US women’s foil team won gold, giving Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub their first-ever medals. Of the 20 total members of the US fencing team, six are Jewish.
Amit Elor
US wrestler Amit Elor captured the gold medal in the women’s 68-kilogram weight class. Elor, 20, is the all-time youngest US gold medallist in wrestling. The daughter of Israeli immigrants, Elor experienced both online antisemitism and the sudden deaths of both her father and a brother during the years when she broke into the elite ranks of US women’s wrestlers.
Tom Reuveny
Windsurfer Tom Reuveny won Israel’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing final. Reuveny’s gold — Israel’s fourth ever — comes 20 years after his coach, Gal Fridman, won Israel’s first-ever gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games in the men’s sailboard competition. Reuveny, whose brother is serving in combat in the Israel-Hamas war, said his win brought some much-needed celebration during a difficult year.
SILVER MEDALLISTS
Artem Dolgopyat
Ukrainian-born Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat won the silver medal, becoming the first Israeli athlete to medal at consecutive Olympics.
Sienna Green
Water polo star Sienna Green won a silver medal with Australia on her Olympics debut. Aged 19, she is the youngest woman to represent Australia in women’s water polo. Her parents are former water polo players, and her father Antony represented Australia at the 1989 and 1993 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Raz Hershko
Israeli judoka Raz Hershko, 26, claimed the silver medal in the women’s over-78-kilogram competition. She is the No 2 ranked judoka in her category in the world.
Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics team
Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics team won the silver medal in the all-around team competition. The group, which is captained by Romi Paritzki, also includes Ofir Shaham, Diana Svertsov, Adar Friedmann and Shani Bakanov.
Sharon Kantor
Sharon Kantor won silver in the women’s iQFoil windsurfing competition, her first-ever medal. Kantor, 21, is the first Israeli woman to win a sailing medal.
Inbar Lanir
Inbar Lanir, 24, won a silver medal in judo for Israel, in the 78-kilogram weight class. She wore a yellow scrunchie to signify advocacy for Israeli hostages in Gaza, and had gone viral at home after she babysat for her neighbour — who did not know she was an Olympian — in the days after October 7. “Instead of training for the Olympics, she’s babysitting,” Sheizaf Tal Meshulam wrote in a Facebook post. “So just know that behind a well-deserved medal stands a woman with a heart of gold.”
Claire Weinstein
Swimmer Claire Weinstein, 17, from the USA, won silver as part of the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay on her Olympics debut. She is the youngest Jewish medallist
BRONZE MEDALLISTS
Nick Itkin
Foil fencer Nick Itkin, 24, whose father is a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, won a bronze medal. He is a two-time NCAA champion and the No 2-ranked men’s foil fencer in the world. Last year he became the first American man, and third US fencer overall, to win individual medals at back-to-back world championships.
Sarah Levy
San Diego native Sarah Levy earned a bronze medal with the US women’s rugby sevens teal. Levy, 28, appeared in three of the team’s six games as she made her Olympics debut. Levy, who had also competed in the JCC Maccabi Games as a teenager, earned the medal alongside the US team’s Jewish assistant coach, former Olympic athlete Zack Test.
Jemima Montag (two bronze medals)
Race walker Jemima Montag joins fellow Aussie Jessica Fox as a two-time medallist in Paris. She won her first medal in the 20-kilometer race walk, an event in which she already owned her country’s record and then another bronze in the inaugural marathon mixed relay event. Montag, 26, is the first Australian woman in 52 years to win two medals in track and field’s athletics category at the same Olympics.
Peter Paltchik
Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik, 32, won bronze in the 100-kilogram weight class, his first individual medal. Paltchik, who had served as one of Israel’s flag bearers at the Paris opening ceremony, was born in Ukraine.
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