Israeli swimmers win 2 more golds at Tokyo Paralympics, bringing total medal count to 9

Iyad Shalabi reacts during a medal ceremony at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre at the 2020 Paralympics, Sept. 2, 2021. By Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
(JTA) — Israeli swimmers Iyad Shalabi and Ami Dadaon each won gold medals at the Paralympics on Thursday, adding to Israel’s historic medal showing.
So far, Israel has won nine medals — six of which are gold, and eight of which come from swimming events.
On the first day of competition, Shalabi had already made history by becoming the first Arab-Israeli athlete to medal in the Olympics or Paralympics. His second gold medal came on day nine in the men’s 50-meter backstroke S1 category. Shalabi was born deaf to a Muslim family in Shfar’am, in northern Israel, and this is his fourth Paralympics.
Dadaon won his third medal on day nine, winning gold in the men’s 50-meter freestyle S4 category, and set a new Paralympic record in the process. He had already won gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle S4 category and silver in the men’s 150-meter individual medley SM4 category.
Israel’s two other swimming golds were won by Mark Malyar. Before this year’s Paralympics, Israel had not won a gold medal in Paralympic swimming.
—
The post Israeli swimmers win 2 more golds at Tokyo Paralympics, bringing total medal count to 9 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.
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!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.