The Israeli Olympics team did not meet a single one of the goals set by the country’s Olympic Committee. That means Israel’s Olympic delegation to London was clearly a failure.

The defeat of some of Israel’s top athletes, like windsurfer Lee Korzits, judoka Arik Ze’evi and gymnast Alex Shatilov is a symptom of the state of Israeli sports.

True, there were some highlights in gymnastics and swimming. Israel had four qualifiers for the gymnastics finals and a sixth-place finish for Shatilov with a seventh place for rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin. In swimming, Yakov Toumarkin took seventh in the 200-meter backstroke finals, becoming the highest-finishing Israeli swimmer in Olympic history, while Gal Nevo ended fourth in the semifinal of the men’s 200-meter individual medley.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

That’s nice and all, but it’s just a few points of light in the darkness, sparks of achievement that are dwarfed by Israel’s overarching losses.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount