JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — Jewish American Ian Seidenfeld upset the world No. 1 to win gold in table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics. The 20-year-old has now followed the footsteps of his father Mitchell, a four-time Paralympic table tennis medalist who won gold in Barcelona in 1992. The elder Seidenfeld now coaches the Team USA Paralympics table…
(JTA) — In his first Paralympic Games, 21-year-old Israeli swimmer Mark Malyar has made history: He won gold for Team Israel and set a new world record in the men’s 200-meter individual medley (SM7) category. Malyar swam the race in a time of 2:29.01. The SM7 category includes swimmers who have limited leg function, or…
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Israeli athlete Doron Shaziri won a bronze medal at the Rio Paralympic Games, Israel’s second medal at the games so far. Shaziri won the medal Monday in men’s R7-50m Rifle 3 Positions, coming behind Laslo Suranji of Serbia, who took gold, and Abdulla Sultan Alaryani of the United Arab Emirates,…
At age 17, Pascale Bercovitch was running for a train to school in Angers, France when she slipped onto the tracks and was run over, eventually losing both of her legs. But she refused to wallow in depression — and 32 years later the Israeli woman is competing for the third time at the Paralympics,…
Relaxing after a game at the East York Curling Club in Toronto last winter, Yuval Grinspun made a joke that would change his life. He kibitzed that if he ever wanted to compete in the Olympics, all he needed to do was start an Israeli curling team. “My wife looked at me and said: ‘You…
Israeli Paralympic swimmer Inbal Pezaro finally brought Israel its first medal in London – at the Paralympic Games. Pezaro, 25, took a bronze in the 50-meter freestyle final in the S5 disability swimming class. She finished with 37.89 seconds, coming in respectively behind a Ukranian and a Spanish swimmer. The athlete, who has been swimming…
The Paralympics, the quadrennial competition for athletes with disabilities that follows the Olympics, will draw some 4,200 participants to London in late August to vie for medals before 1.5 million ticket-holders, 5,600 journalists, countless television viewers — and, for the first time, a bronze bust of the bespectacled physician and refugee from Nazi Germany who…
Serious tennis fans have likely heard of Israeli players like Shahar Peer and Andy Ram, but it’s safe to bet that most are not familiar with Noam Gershony, despite the fact that he is higher ranked than the others. Gershony, a quadriplegic, plays wheelchair tennis. He is ranked third in the world in wheelchair quad…
