Jewish Telegraphic Agency.org
By: Jacob Gurvis
Published on: August 8, 2024
The 2024 Paris Olympics conclude on Sunday, and at least 15 Jewish athletes from the United States, Australia and Israel will return home with some new hardware: The tally includes six golds (with one athlete winning two), five silvers and five bronzes. The medal total of 16 is more than all but 11 countries.
Israel in particular has racked up a historic medal collection, with six total medals, its most ever in a single Olympics. Israel won three medals on Saturday alone, its most medals in one day. The country now has 19 total Olympic medals, including nine in judo and five in sailing.
Australian paddler Jessica Fox has added to her legacy, and is considered the greatest canoeist of all time, winning two gold medals in Paris in canoe and kayak races. Her younger sister Noemie also won a gold medal, her first, in the brand-new kayak cross event.
Read on for more about all the Jewish and Israeli medalists, alphabetized and in order of medal type.
The U.S. women’s foil team won gold, giving Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub their first-ever medals. Dubrovich had narrowly missed a medal in Tokyo, while Weintraub is making her Olympic debut. Weintraub, who deferred her final year at Princeton University to train for the Olympics, was the alternate but subbed in for Dubrovich briefly so that she would be eligible to share in the team medal. Lee Kiefer and Lauren Scruggs, who each won medals in the individual foil competition, rounded out the U.S. team. Out of the 20 total members of the U.S. fencing team, six are Jewish or come from Jewish families.
U.S. wrestler Amit Elor entered the Paris Olympics, her first Games, on a winning streak dating back to 2019. That undefeated stretch continued this week as she captured the gold medal in the women’s 68-kilogram weight class. Elor is 20, making her the all-time youngest U.S. gold medalist in wrestling. The daughter of Israeli immigrants, Elor experienced both online antisemitism and the sudden deaths of both her father and a brother during the years when she broke into the elite ranks of U.S. women’s wrestlers.
Australian canoe paddler Jessica Fox entered these Olympis already regarded by many as the best ever in her sport. Fox, 30, added two more gold medals to her collection in Paris, one in the women’s kayak slalom and one in the canoe slalom. She now has six career medals: three gold, one silver and two bronze. She is the most decorated Olympic canoe slalom competitor ever, and the only Australian Olympian in history with six individual medals. She had served as one of Australia’s flag bearers in the Paris opening ceremony.
Noemie Fox, Jessica Fox’s younger sister, won her first-ever Olympic medal, a gold in the inaugural kayak cross event. Fox, 27, and her sister join a rare class of Jewish siblings to win medals at the same Olympics. They are likely the first Jewish siblings to each win gold at the same Games since sisters Tamara and Irina Press did so in 1960 and 1964 in track and field events for the Soviet Union.
Windsurfer Tom Reuveny won Israel’s first, and so far only, gold medal of the Paris Olympics in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing final. Reuveny’s gold — Israel’s fourth ever — comes 20 years after his coach, Gal Fridman, won Israel’s first-ever gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games in the men’s sailboard competition. Reuveny, whose brother is serving in combat in the Israel-Hamas war, said his win brought some much needed celebration during a difficult year. “It’s been so hard and I still had to put my head down and keep training and it’s all for this moment,” he said.
Ukrainian-born Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat entered the Paris Olympics as a medal favorite in the floor exercise, the event in which he captured gold in Tokyo. After a difficult showing in the qualifying round, Dolgopyat rebounded to win the silver medal, becoming the first Israeli athlete to medal at consecutive Olympics.
Israeli judoka Raz Hershko claimed the silver medal in the women’s over-78-kilogram competition, her second career Olympic medal. She had won bronze with Israel’s mixed judo team in Tokyo. Hershko, 26, is the No. 2 ranked judoka in her category in the world, according to the International Judo Federation.
On the same day that Reuveny won gold and Dolgopyat won silver, Sharon Kantor won silver in the women’s iQFoil windsurfing competition, her first-ever medal. Kantor, 21, is the first Israeli woman to win a sailing medal.
Inbar Lanir also won a silver medal in judo for Israel, in the 78-kilogram weight class. The win earned Lanir her first individual medal; she had won bronze in Tokyo with Israel’s mixed team. Lanir, 24, wore a yellow scrunchie to signify advocacy for Israeli hostages in Gaza, and had gone viral at home after she babysat for her neighbor — who did not know she was an Olympian — in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. “Instead of training for the Olympics, she’s babysitting,” Sheizaf Tal Meshulam wrote in a Facebook post. “So just know that behind a well-deserved medal stands a woman with a heart of gold.”
Swimmer Claire Weinstein won silver as part of the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, alongside U.S. Olympic legend Katie Ledecky. Weinstein, 17, is making her Olympics debut in Paris and is the youngest Jewish medalist. The New York native, who celebrated her bat mitzvah at Reform Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, swam the first leg of the U.S. team’s relay. Erin Gemmell and Paige Madden rounded out the team.
Foil fencer Nick Itkin won bronze early on in the Paris Olympics, improving on his 12th-place finish in the individual competition in Tokyo. He had won bronze with the U.S. men’s foil team at the Tokyo Games. Itkin, 24, whose father is a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, is also a two-time NCAA champion and the No. 2-ranked men’s foil fencer in the world. Last year he became the first American man, and third U.S. fencer overall, to win individual medals at back-to-back world championships.
San Diego native Sarah Levy earned a bronze medal with the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team, which stunned Australia in the final to win its first-ever Olympic medal. Levy, 28, appeared in three of the team’s six games as she made her Olympics debut. Levy, who had also competed in the JCC Maccabi Games as a teenager, earned the medal alongside the U.S. team’s Jewish assistant coach, former Olympic athlete Zack Test.
Race walker Jemima Montag joins fellow Aussie Jessica Fox as a two-time medalist in Paris. She won her first medal in the 20-kilometer race walk, an event in which she already owned her country’s record. Montag won another bronze Wednesday in the inaugural marathon mixed relay event. Montag, 26, is the first Australian woman in 52 years to win two medals in track and field’s athletics category at the same Olympics.
Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik won bronze in the 100-kilogram weight class, his first individual medal. Paltchik also won bronze, alongside Hershko and Lanir, with the Israeli mixed judo team in Tokyo. Paltchik, who had served as one of Israel’s flag bearers at the Paris opening ceremony, was born in Ukraine. He won gold at the 2020 European championship.
www.jta.org
By: Jacob Gurvis
Published on: August 8, 2024
All the Jewish medalists at the 2024 Paris Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympics conclude on Sunday, and at least 15 Jewish athletes from the United States, Australia and Israel will return home with some new hardware: The tally includes six golds (with one athlete winning two), five silvers and five bronzes. The medal total of 16 is more than all but 11 countries.
Israel in particular has racked up a historic medal collection, with six total medals, its most ever in a single Olympics. Israel won three medals on Saturday alone, its most medals in one day. The country now has 19 total Olympic medals, including nine in judo and five in sailing.
Australian paddler Jessica Fox has added to her legacy, and is considered the greatest canoeist of all time, winning two gold medals in Paris in canoe and kayak races. Her younger sister Noemie also won a gold medal, her first, in the brand-new kayak cross event.
Read on for more about all the Jewish and Israeli medalists, alphabetized and in order of medal type.
Gold medalists
Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub
The U.S. women’s foil team won gold, giving Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub their first-ever medals. Dubrovich had narrowly missed a medal in Tokyo, while Weintraub is making her Olympic debut. Weintraub, who deferred her final year at Princeton University to train for the Olympics, was the alternate but subbed in for Dubrovich briefly so that she would be eligible to share in the team medal. Lee Kiefer and Lauren Scruggs, who each won medals in the individual foil competition, rounded out the U.S. team. Out of the 20 total members of the U.S. fencing team, six are Jewish or come from Jewish families.
Amit Elor
U.S. wrestler Amit Elor entered the Paris Olympics, her first Games, on a winning streak dating back to 2019. That undefeated stretch continued this week as she captured the gold medal in the women’s 68-kilogram weight class. Elor is 20, making her the all-time youngest U.S. gold medalist in wrestling. The daughter of Israeli immigrants, Elor experienced both online antisemitism and the sudden deaths of both her father and a brother during the years when she broke into the elite ranks of U.S. women’s wrestlers.
Jessica Fox (two gold medals)
Australian canoe paddler Jessica Fox entered these Olympis already regarded by many as the best ever in her sport. Fox, 30, added two more gold medals to her collection in Paris, one in the women’s kayak slalom and one in the canoe slalom. She now has six career medals: three gold, one silver and two bronze. She is the most decorated Olympic canoe slalom competitor ever, and the only Australian Olympian in history with six individual medals. She had served as one of Australia’s flag bearers in the Paris opening ceremony.
Noemie Fox
Noemie Fox, Jessica Fox’s younger sister, won her first-ever Olympic medal, a gold in the inaugural kayak cross event. Fox, 27, and her sister join a rare class of Jewish siblings to win medals at the same Olympics. They are likely the first Jewish siblings to each win gold at the same Games since sisters Tamara and Irina Press did so in 1960 and 1964 in track and field events for the Soviet Union.
Tom Reuveny
Windsurfer Tom Reuveny won Israel’s first, and so far only, gold medal of the Paris Olympics in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing final. Reuveny’s gold — Israel’s fourth ever — comes 20 years after his coach, Gal Fridman, won Israel’s first-ever gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games in the men’s sailboard competition. Reuveny, whose brother is serving in combat in the Israel-Hamas war, said his win brought some much needed celebration during a difficult year. “It’s been so hard and I still had to put my head down and keep training and it’s all for this moment,” he said.
Silver medalists
Artem Dolgopyat
Ukrainian-born Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat entered the Paris Olympics as a medal favorite in the floor exercise, the event in which he captured gold in Tokyo. After a difficult showing in the qualifying round, Dolgopyat rebounded to win the silver medal, becoming the first Israeli athlete to medal at consecutive Olympics.
Raz Hershko
Israeli judoka Raz Hershko claimed the silver medal in the women’s over-78-kilogram competition, her second career Olympic medal. She had won bronze with Israel’s mixed judo team in Tokyo. Hershko, 26, is the No. 2 ranked judoka in her category in the world, according to the International Judo Federation.
Sharon Kantor
On the same day that Reuveny won gold and Dolgopyat won silver, Sharon Kantor won silver in the women’s iQFoil windsurfing competition, her first-ever medal. Kantor, 21, is the first Israeli woman to win a sailing medal.
Inbar Lanir
Inbar Lanir also won a silver medal in judo for Israel, in the 78-kilogram weight class. The win earned Lanir her first individual medal; she had won bronze in Tokyo with Israel’s mixed team. Lanir, 24, wore a yellow scrunchie to signify advocacy for Israeli hostages in Gaza, and had gone viral at home after she babysat for her neighbor — who did not know she was an Olympian — in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. “Instead of training for the Olympics, she’s babysitting,” Sheizaf Tal Meshulam wrote in a Facebook post. “So just know that behind a well-deserved medal stands a woman with a heart of gold.”
Claire Weinstein
Swimmer Claire Weinstein won silver as part of the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, alongside U.S. Olympic legend Katie Ledecky. Weinstein, 17, is making her Olympics debut in Paris and is the youngest Jewish medalist. The New York native, who celebrated her bat mitzvah at Reform Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, swam the first leg of the U.S. team’s relay. Erin Gemmell and Paige Madden rounded out the team.
Bronze medalists
Nick Itkin
Foil fencer Nick Itkin won bronze early on in the Paris Olympics, improving on his 12th-place finish in the individual competition in Tokyo. He had won bronze with the U.S. men’s foil team at the Tokyo Games. Itkin, 24, whose father is a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, is also a two-time NCAA champion and the No. 2-ranked men’s foil fencer in the world. Last year he became the first American man, and third U.S. fencer overall, to win individual medals at back-to-back world championships.
Sarah Levy
San Diego native Sarah Levy earned a bronze medal with the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team, which stunned Australia in the final to win its first-ever Olympic medal. Levy, 28, appeared in three of the team’s six games as she made her Olympics debut. Levy, who had also competed in the JCC Maccabi Games as a teenager, earned the medal alongside the U.S. team’s Jewish assistant coach, former Olympic athlete Zack Test.
Jemima Montag (two bronze medals)
Race walker Jemima Montag joins fellow Aussie Jessica Fox as a two-time medalist in Paris. She won her first medal in the 20-kilometer race walk, an event in which she already owned her country’s record. Montag won another bronze Wednesday in the inaugural marathon mixed relay event. Montag, 26, is the first Australian woman in 52 years to win two medals in track and field’s athletics category at the same Olympics.
Peter Paltchik
Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik won bronze in the 100-kilogram weight class, his first individual medal. Paltchik also won bronze, alongside Hershko and Lanir, with the Israeli mixed judo team in Tokyo. Paltchik, who had served as one of Israel’s flag bearers at the Paris opening ceremony, was born in Ukraine. He won gold at the 2020 European championship.
All the Jewish medalists at the 2024 Paris Olympics - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish and Israeli athletes have won 16 total medals so far in sports ranging from swimming and judo to sailing and fencing at the 2024 Paris Games.
www.jta.org
