Israeli athletes shine at Paris Paralympics, bringing home 9 medals so far

Read this article in:

Israel’s Paralympic athletes continued their winning streak in Paris on Thursday, bringing the Israeli team's total medal count to 9.

The women’s goalball team won a silver medal, having lost to Turkey in a score of 3-8 in the final goalball Paralympics match. The silver medal marked Israel’s first-ever in the sport and was Israel's first Paralympic team sport medal since 1988.

The team, consisting of Lihi Ben David, Elham Mahamid, Noa Malka, Gal Hamrani, Or Mizrahi and Roni Ohayon, played a friendly match against Turkey’s team. Despite current tensions between Israel and Turkey, friendly greetings were exchanged between the competitors both before and after the match.

“The silver medal is an honor,” Ben David said following the match. “We did our part in terms of pride and we got many joyous messages from those at home in Israel. Hatikvah’ we’ll sing out loud in the Olympic Village, nobody will silence us.”

Israel also won a bronze medal in tennis on Thursday when Guy Sasson beat Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan in men’s quad singles. The two opponents also shared friendly greetings before and after the match. After his victory, Sasson wrapped himself in the Israeli flag.

“It was a match full of emotion and full of energy, and I imagine that it will set in soon that I’m an Olympic medalist,” Sasson said. “If I managed to make people watching at home a little happy, especially the families of the fallen and the hostages, if this hope and this joy can give them a small smile on their faces, then I think we’ve done our part.”

The Israeli tennis athlete said that watching videos related to Israel’s hostages in Gaza or those who were killed gave him “drive and a lot of motivation” during the matches.

Before the bronze medal match, Sasson listened to a song about May Naim, who was murdered at the Nova Festival during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

“If knowing this will make them happy, then that’s what I won with,” said Sasson.

Some of Israel's athletes experienced disappointments on Thursday but didn't let that stop them from thinking forward to the next Paralympic Games.

Competitive shooter Yulia Chernoy finished fifth in the final of the mixed 50-meter rifle-prone competition.

“I have a lot of emotions,” she said. “I made it to the final and today the level was super high in the final. I did my best, I’m sorry I couldn’t make you happy with a medal… yalla, I’m ready for the next games in four years.”

Also on Thursday, Israeli hand cyclist Amit Hasdai, in his first appearance at the Paralympics, was forced to withdraw early from the men’s road race after his handcycle suffered a flat tire. On Wednesday, Hasdai finished fourth overall in the men’s time trial.

“I managed to finish in fourth in the time trial, I’m less satisfied with today but we’ll keep going, I will keep going,” he said in an interview with Israel's Sport5 channel. Overall, he said his first Paralympics has been “an incredible experience, people here are very strong but I managed to compete – at the next games I’ll do better.”