Yarden Gerbi became the first Israeli to medal at the Rio Olympics, bringing home a bronze in the women’s 63-kg judo competition. Gerbi defeated Miku Tashiro of Japan on Tuesday for Israel’s first Olympic medal since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. “The medal is for all of Israel, for everyone who supported me and cheered…
Here’s something dictatorships, economics and the Olympics all have in common: each projects the notion that strength, agility, and efficiency define human worth. There’s a corollary to that shared vision, too. In each of these systems, the less strong are automatically second class. After Gold, there’s just Silver, Bronze, spectator, and pariah. There’s nowhere to…
NETANYA, Israel (JTA) – Andrea Murez steps on the diving board, adjusts her goggles, swings her long arms and propels herself into the water at the Wingate Institute athletic complex here. Murez is training with a dozen other swimmers. She is the one preparing for the Summer Olympics a few weeks later. The 24-year-old Los…
Nate Ebner of the New England Patriots has qualified for the U.S. Olympic men’s rugby sevens team competing next month at the Rio Olympics, becoming the only NFL player to make a U.S. Olympic team. Ebner, 27, who is Jewish, was included on the 12-man roster released Monday by USA Rugby. Joining Ebner on the…
Nathan and Joshua Katz, two brothers from Australia now headed to the Olympics, are Jews with judo in their blood. Nathan, who is 21, and Joshua, age 18, inherited their love for the Japanese martial art from their parents, both of whom were judo fighters, too. Now they’ve made it to the Olympics. The two…
So far 30 Israeli athletes have guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team for Rio de Janeiro, with the judokas seen as having the best chance to win a medal. The first Israeli to meet the qualifying criteria for this summer’s games was Yakov Toumarkin, who finished seventh in London in 2012 in the 200-meter…
Family members of the victims of the massacre of 11 Israeli Olympians during the 1972 Games in Munich only learned the horrifying details of how they were treated 20 years later. The Israelis — athletes and coaches — were beaten and, in at least one case, castrated during the 20 hours that they were held…
(JTA) — Once the music started playing — not the “Hava Nagila” tune that made her the Jewish poster child of the London Games, but something equally folksy — Aly Raisman tumbled right out of bounds. On her first bit of gymnastics at her comeback World Championships here last month, she had quickly incurred a…
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