The Israeli Olympic team might not win any medals at the Beijing Summer Games, but its athletes already have provided their share of riveting storylines.
This year’s team includes the Israeli poster girl of the Women’s Tennis Association, a 53-year-old marathon runner whose long-distance journey to China included a recent stay in an Ethiopian jail, and a taekwondo competitor from the West Bank who hopes to win gold for Israel and the 5,000 settlers in her hometown.
There’s even a Bay Area connection: U.C. Berkeley swimmer Guy Barnea — a 20-year-old Beersheva native — will make his Olympic debut in the 100-meter backstroke and 100-meter butterfly. Many say he’s the Jewish state’s best chance of hearing “Hatikvah” at a swimming medal ceremony.
Barnea holds the Israeli record in the 50-meter and 100-meter backstroke and 100-meter butterfly. His success has spanned the globe: He finished seventh in the 100-meter backstroke at this year’s European Games in the Netherlands and reached the semifinals in the 50-meter backstroke at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne.
This is Barnea’s first Olympics, as it will be for Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer. Beijing might be just what Peer needs to get back on track. The 21-year-old Jerusalem native has suffered a recent string of early-round exits during the U.S. Open warm-up tournaments, including a quick defeat at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University a few weeks ago.
Peer will use the two-week stop in Beijing to gain experience and momentum heading into the final Grand Slam tournament of the season.
“I concentrate on the Olympics, then the U.S. Open,” said Peer, this year’s Australian Open doubles runner-up with partner Victoria Azarenka. “Each tournament is really big and really important.”
Part of Peer’s first appearance at the Olympics will include doubles action with Tzipi Obziler, with whom Peer elected to partner after Obziler, 35, failed to qualify for the Games on her own.
This will be the 14th time Israel has competed in the Summer Olympics, having first waved its flag in Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. But there have been few trips to the podium. While about 265 athletes have competed for Israel over the years, the country didn’t win its first medal until 1992, and has won only six overall. Two of those, including Israel’s first and only Olympic gold, were garnered at the last games.
Gal Fridman, who took the gold in windsurfing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, will not be among the 40-some athletes representing Israel in Beijing. The 32-year-old finished 29th at this year’s world championships in New Zealand.
Still, many Israelis feel they have an heir apparent to Fridman’s windsurfing throne. Shahar Tzuberi, a 21-year-old Eilat beach boy, took third in this year’s world championships and has consistently ranked among the Top 10 in the world, raising hopes for a medal.
“Gal did a great job in Athens, but I’m not feeling so much pressure,” Tzuberi said.
Though Israel is fielding is its largest Olympic team ever, there isn’t much optimism for a trove of medals. The team’s best chances are on the sea. In addition to Tzuberi, sailing partners Udi Gal and Gidi Kliger are expected to perform well. Their hopes for the Athens Games were dashed with a 13th-place finish in the 470 sailing class, but they rebounded by nabbing bronze medals in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 world championships.
However, the duo nearly was stripped of its chance to tack and jibe Israel’s way to the medal stand in China: In June, Gal tested positive for the banned substance Finasteride, an element in his hair-regeneration medication. The Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI) stripped him of his national title, but didn’t suspend him.
The OCI was not so forgiving with 22-year-old Max Jaben, who grew up in Kansas and swam for the University of Florida before making aliyah last year. He was suspended from the Israeli Olympic team after testing positive twice for traces of the anabolic steroid Boldenone in April.
The Israeli squad was in danger of losing another athlete late last month when 53-year-old marathon runner Haile Satayi spent four days in prison in his native Ethiopia before being released.
Israeli’s oldest Olympic athlete was placed in custody “after an acquaintance of his claimed he had stolen money from him,” Israel Athletics Association chairman Shlomo Ben-Gal said. A few days later, an Ethiopian judge decided the charges were groundless and released Satayi. The runner, who finished 20th at the 2004 Athens Games, has opted to stay in Ethiopia and train at high altitudes for the Aug. 24 race.
Female taekwondo competitor Bat-El Gaterer is another on the long list of Israel’s interesting Olympics stories. Gaterer is a 21-year-old resident of Kochav Yaakov, a West Bank settlement. She is religiously observant but served in the Israeli military while training in taekwondo.
Her weight class is scheduled to fight Aug. 21, which is a Thursday, so she will not have to compete on Shabbat or bow out of competition prematurely.
The daughter of French-born immigrants, Gaterer identifies as a settler — possibly the first with a shot at an Olympic medal — but has said she is representing the entire Jewish state. She took the bronze medal at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Turkey in January, competing in the 110-to-125-pound weight category.
For the first time, half of Israeli’s Olympic team is female, according to Efraim Zinger, head of the OCI. That’s due in large part to Israel having eight rhythmic gymnasts (an all-female sport in the Olympics) on its squad.
Six of the eight gymnasts are immigrants from the former Soviet Union (including individual competitors Irina Risenzon, 20, and Neta Rivkin, at 17 the youngest member of the team). The two Israel natives are the daughters of Russian immigrants.
Even the hard-driving coaches are of Russian descent: individuals coach Ira Vigdorchik (who emigrated from Moscow in 1979) and team coach Ela Samotalov (who came from Minsk, Belarus, in 1991).
Overall, 11 members of the Israeli team are from the former Soviet Union.
Israel did not qualify any individuals or teams in the sports many Americans will be watching: basketball, soccer, gymnastics (outside of rhythmic), boxing, softball and volleyball.
In track and field, Israel’s strongest representative is 33-year-old pole vaulter Alex Averbukh, who will be competing in his final Olympics. One of Israel’s greatest athletes regardless of what he accomplishes in Beijing, Averbukh reached the final of the pole vault in the Sydney and Athens Olympics, finishing 10th and eighth, respectively.
Shooter Guy Starik, 43, is the most seasoned Israeli Olympian; he will join sailor Yoel Sela as the only Israelis to compete in their fourth Olympics. In Athens, Starik finished a disappointing 16th, failing to qualify for the final after being tabbed one of Israel’s best bets for a gold medal.
Although a hefty 60 percent of Israeli’s athletes will be competing in the Olympics for the first time, the roster includes two Olympic medalists: judo champion Arik Zeevi, who won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004, and kayaker Michael Kolganov, who won a bronze medal in the K1 500-meter event at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Kolganov, 33, will carry the Israeli flag at the opening ceremony.
J. staff writer Amanda Pazornik, Jerusalem Post reporter Allon Sinai and JTA reporter Dina Kraft contributed to this report.