Gymnast Linoy Ashram wins Israel’s 3rd Olympic gold medal, over a Russian appeal
(JTA) — Linoy Ashram won the gold medal in the rhythmic gymnastics contest at the Tokyo Olympics Saturday, narrowly beating out her Russian competitor to become the first Israeli woman to win an Olympic gold medal. The medal was Israel’s second gold at the Tokyo games and third in any Olympic contest.
Ashram’s winning score, just .15 of a point over that of her Russian competitor, Dina Averina, prompted an appeal and cries of “injustice” in a tweet from the Russian Olympic Committee. Ashram’s victory broke Russia’s two-decade Olympic gold-medal streak in the individual rhythmic gymnastics contest.
“I can’t spot any obvious mistake that I did,” Averina said of her routine. “I was pretty consistent and clean compared to Linoy who lost the apparatus.”
The Russian team appealed the scoring in the contest, which consists of gymnastic routines using props including balls, ribbons, and hoops. The appeals, which failed to overturn the result, included the ribbon routine in which Ashram dropped her ribbon but still finished with the winning score.
“It’s what I dreamed of for all my life,” Ashram said of her win. “It’s an amazing feeling to stand in this place, at this time, on the podium and in first place.”
The Israel Defense Forces, in which Ashram served, celebrated her win with a tweet that, in keeping with the army’s rules, referred to the gymnast by her rank and first name only.
“And I hope to compete in the Olympics…” said gold medalist Cpl. Linoy 3 years ago, then a soldier in the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate.
We salute our rhythmic gymnastics Olympic champion, Cpl. Linoy, and Sgt. Nicole, an outstanding soldier and athlete who won 7th place! pic.twitter.com/wVFpgGtH7S
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 7, 2021
—
The post Gymnast Linoy Ashram wins Israel’s 3rd Olympic gold medal, over a Russian appeal appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO