As Israel endured a difficult weekend at home, its athletes won several Paralympic medals, bringing Paris total to 7
Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin compete in the PR2 mixed double sculls heat at the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, Aug. 30, 2024, in Paris. (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
(JTA) — As Israeli Paralympic rower Shahar Milfelder won her first career medal on Sunday, she was thinking about the families of the six newly confirmed dead hostages.
“We had in mind to give pride to the country,” Milfelder said, according to the Israeli news site Mako. “I cried in the morning from the hard news and now I cry from the good news and send the biggest hug I can to the families of the abducted and to all the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Milfelder and her rowing partner, Saleh Shahin, took bronze in the PR2 mixed double sculls. Milfelder, 26, a native of Moshav Beit Yitzchak in Israel, was diagnosed with a rare and serious form of bone cancer at 15 and had part of her pelvis removed.
Shahin, 41, is a Druze Israeli who was injured in a 2005 terrorist attack while serving in the Israeli army. The medal was also his first.
“It’s a great honor to represent my country, but it’s also a huge responsibility,” Shain told the Jewish Chronicle before the Games. “I hope to do so in the most deserving and honorable way, especially in this difficult period after Oct. 7. It is my goal to show the world how strong we are.”
Milfelder and Shahin’s bronze was one of five medals Israel has won since Friday, bringing its Paris total to seven, including four golds.
On Saturday, two-time gold medalist swimmer Mark Malyar won bronze in the men’s 100-meter backstroke S8, his fourth career Paralympic medal and second bronze. Malyar, 24, who was born with cerebral palsy, finished 1.84 seconds behind the Spanish gold medalist and just 0.39 seconds behind the Japanese silver medalist.
On Sunday, two days after winning a gold medal and setting a Paralympic record in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S4, swimmer Ami Dadaon, 23, took silver in the men’s 150-meter individual medley SM4, finishing seven and a half seconds behind the gold medalist from the Neutral Paralympic Athletes delegation, which includes athletes from Russia and Belarus.
Also on Sunday, four-time Paralympic rower Moran Samuel won her third career Paralympic medal and first-ever gold, in the PR1 women’s single sculls. Samuel, 42, suffered a spinal stroke in 2006, paralyzing her lower body.
On Tuesday, Dadaon won his third career medal and second gold after finishing first in the men’s 200-meter freestyle S4, an event in which he set the world and Paralympic records at the Tokyo Games. Dadaon, who has cerebral palsy, now owns six career Paralympic medals, including four golds.
Israeli martial artist Asaf Yasur had won Israel’s first Paris medal Aug. 29 in taekwondo. As of Tuesday afternoon Eastern Time, Israel has won seven Paralympic medals, equaling its best-ever haul at the Olympics last month.
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