Israeli Paralympian Ami Omer Dadaon secured his third swimming gold medal on Friday, finishing first in the men's 100m freestyle at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France. This victory marks Israel's second gold medal at the current games and brings the nation's total Paralympic medal count to 385, as reported by i24NEWS.

Dadaon broke the Paralympic record, finishing in 1:20.25 minutes and winning the final of the 100-meter freestyle in the S4 category. Reflecting on his mindset during the race, Dadaon shared, "When I'm in the water, I don't think about anything, only the race."

Dadaon, a world champion swimmer, acknowledged the challenges he faced during the competition. "It wasn't an easy race for me," he said in a post-race interview. Despite the difficulty, Dadaon expressed his pride in representing Israel internationally.

עמי דדאון, שזכה במדליית זהב בשחייה ל-100 מטר חופשי, שר בגאווה את המנון ״התקווה״.

עמי, אתה גאווה למדינת ישראל!

וידאו: @sport5il pic.twitter.com/G8p51UmEgK

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) August 31, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X, "Ami, you make the State of Israel proud!"

The athlete's performance not only showcased his personal achievement but also held a deeper significance for his home country. "I was able to represent the people of Israel. I have no words to describe this feeling," Dadaon said, highlighting the emotional weight of his victory. The gifted athlete kissed the Israeli flag emblem on his uniform after his victory. Despite the challenges posed by his cerebral palsy, Dadaon moved spectators by singing the Israeli national anthem during the medal ceremony. "I will sing Hatikvah. That's all I wanted – to represent the people of Israel in this period and to give them hope."

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Israeli athlete Elizabeth Kovalev won a gold medal Sunday at the 2021 World Youth and Junior Sambo Championship held in Thessaloniki, Greece.

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The seventeen-year-old athlete – from Rishon LeZion – competed in the 72-kilogram weight division. On her way to victory, she defeated France's Leroy Clara, Greece's Malina Canopolo, Ukraine's Shimko Yana, and Russia's Anastasia Konopleva.

"We are thrilled and proud of this achievement," Kovalev's coach, Pavel Musin, said. "Israel is already considered a leading nation in Sambo. I hope we will continue to bring more success and pride to our country with our wonderful athletes and team." Musin is also the vice-president of the Israel Sambo Federation.

Sambo is a Soviet martial art that was developed in the 1920s by the military to improve the hand-to-hand combat abilities of its servicemen.

"Israeli Sambo continues to develop and bring impressive achievements," said Arik Kaplan, president of the Ayelet Federation of non-Olympic Sports. "And we are especially proud of Elizabeth's achievement and professional skills demonstrated at the World Championship. We look forward to more such successes in the future."

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Israel's judo team earned gold and bronze medals at the 2021 European Junior Judo Championships in Luxembourg Thursday.

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Kerem Primo was crowned the European champion in the women's under-57 kg category, while Matan Kokolayev took bronze in the men's under-60 kg division.

Israel Judo Association Chairman Moshe Ponti praised the team of "incredible coaches and athletes who, competition after competition, prove their depth, professionalism, and seriousness, bringing results from a young age, through adolescence to adulthood. I'm proud of them."

Israel's national women's judo coach Shani Hershko lauded the "quality and significant achievement of Kerem Primo and the women's judo team.

"Kerem is just 16 years old, and at such a young age, this is history. She's won an amazing and rare achievement – gold in the under-18 European Championships and gold in the under-21 European Championships. It's no secret our goals are to win the adult competitions, but competitions for younger ages are an important and usually effective way to get there," she explained.

Hershko called Primo "a rare athlete who still has her future ahead of her. On her path, there is still room for improvement, and I am confident Kerem will be committed to the task."

She noted "2021 has been an amazing year for the women's team so far. This year, we won medals at the Olympic Games, world championships, and European championships for all ages. No one is prouder than I am of these athletes, the team, and the Judo association."

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I learned two things watching rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram receive her gold medal. I suddenly realized what it feels like for those watching the competitions, including the one I took part in, at home. The excitement was immense. I admit, at times, I felt more nervous than I did during my own performance, so much so that I held my breath while waiting to learn Russian gymnast's Dina Averina's score and the color of Ashram's medal.

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The other thing I learned while watching Saturday's competitions is that hard work brings results. Although Russia has dominated Ashram's field, it was an Israeli gymnast that moved us and the entire country, filling Israelis with joy and proving the sky is the limit.

From the moment the final score determined Ashram would take home the gold medal, the joy that took over me knew no limits. I congratulate Ashram on her achievement. I am so happy for her and her coach Ayelet Zussman, whose role, along with that of the Israeli Gymnastics Federation in going from zero medals to two – both of them gold – at the Tokyo Olympics. It's hard to describe in words what this achievement means for the federation. Who would have thought Israel would win two gold medals?!

I hope Ashram enjoys the medal and everything that comes with it. Having had an opportunity to get to know her much better after spending time with her at press junkets and at the gym last year, the fact that she was the one to take home gold makes me particularly happy. I assume and hope Israeli gymnastics makes the most of these two medals and that this is only the beginning of a long tradition of great achievements in gymnastics on a global scale.

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Powerhouse rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram won the gold medal in the rhythmic gymnastics individual competition, ending Russia's decades-long dominance in the sport and bringing Israel its second Olympic gold medal.

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Ashram, 22, edged out Russian twins Dina and Arina Averina, who were favorites going into Tokyo. Dina placed second and Arina fell to fourth place. Alina Harnasko of Belarus won the bronze medal.

Russia has swept the rhythmic gymnastics gold medals in every Olympics since 2000.

But Ashram's victory Saturday breaks their streak. Her nearly flawless performance included a club routine set to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" and dancing with a ribbon to a techno remix of "Hava Nagila."

On Friday, Ashram and fellow teammate Nicol Zelikman both qualified for the final round after each performed four routines, one each with the hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon.

Ashram's first round had a shaky start. She dropped her hoop at the end of the routine, and received a lesser score of 23.500 points.

She made a comeback with her ball routine, scoring the highest 29.250 points. She received 27.850 and 23.500 points for her club and ribbon performances respectively, gaining 103.100 in the qualifiers altogether. She ranked third in Friday's qualifiers.

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For Agnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic champion, the fondest memory of her remarkable 100 years is simply that she has lived through it all.

The Holocaust survivor and winner of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics – including five golds – celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday in her native Budapest, punctuating a life of achievement, adventure, tragedy and perseverance which, she says, passed by in a flash.

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"These 100 years felt to me like 60," she said at a celebration in Budapest on the eve of her birthday.

Leafing through a copy of a new book about her life – "The Queen of Gymnastics: 100 Years of Agnes Keleti" – her trademark modesty was on full display.

"'The queen of gymnastics,'" she said, switching to English. And in Hungarian: "That's an exaggeration."

Keleti, who was born Agnes Klein in 1921, had her illustrious career interrupted by World War II and the subsequent cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics. Forced off her gymnastics team in 1941 because of her Jewish ancestry, Keleti went into hiding in the Hungarian countryside where she survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a maid.

Her mother and sister survived the war with the help of famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, but her father and other relatives perished at Auschwitz, among the more than half a million Hungarian Jews killed in Nazi death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators.

Resuming her career after the war, Keleti was set to compete at the 1948 London Olympics but a last-minute ankle injury dashed her hopes. Four years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a silver and two bronzes.

Despite her achievements – with six medals she was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and she is recognized as one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes of all time – the still-vivacious Keleti said she most values her health and the simple fact that she has lived.

"I love life," she said. "Health is the essence. Without it, there is nothing."

In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Keleti said the experiences she gained while traveling the world were more precious to her than her 10 Olympic medals.

"I loved gymnastics because it was possible to travel for free," she said.

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Those travels would ultimately result in a nearly 60-year absence from her native Hungary. At the age of 35, while she was becoming the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history in Melbourne, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary following an unsuccessful anti-Soviet uprising. Keleti remained in Australia and sought political asylum. She then immigrated to Israel the following year and worked as a trainer and coached the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team until the 1990s.

After leaving Hungary for the Olympics in 1956, she visited her native country only once before returning to Budapest in 2015.

Keleti was awarded the Israel Prize in 2017 and is the recipient of numerous other prestigious awards, including being named one of Hungary's "Athletes of the Nation" in 2004. She holds individual gold medals in the floor exercise, balance beam and uneven bars.

Today, Keleti follows her doctor's recent advice to avoid performing full leg splits, and her near-perpetual smile and infectious laughter are reminders that even in times of great hardship, there remains the immutable potential for perseverance and the joy

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