Israeli athletes have won two medals at the Rio Olympics as of Aug. 15 – both bronze, and both in judo.
Meanwhile on Aug. 14, Israeli champion Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko finished fifth in the women’s triple jump final in track and field competition, just missing a medal for the second straight Olympics. Knyazyeva-Minenko, who holds Israel’s national record for the triple jump, finished fourth at the 2012 London Olympics.
She was trying to become the third Israeli athlete to win a medal in Rio.
Or Sasson won a bronze medal in judo on Aug. 12, hours after being snubbed by an Egyptian opponent who refused to shake his hand after their match.
Sasson, 25, defeated Cuba’s Alex Maxell Garcia Mendoza in the bronze-medal match in the over 100-kg category.
Sasson won against Egypt’s Islam El Shehaby in the opening round of the competition, and then reached the semifinals by defeating Maciej Sarnacki of Poland in the round of 16 and Roy Meyer of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. He lost to eventual gold medalist Teddy Riner of France in the semifinals.
El Shehaby was jeered by fans when he gave Sasson a quick nod instead of the tradition post-match bow and then backed away when Sasson extended his hand.
“I knew to put that incident aside,” Sasson told reporters after winning his medal. “Politics doesn’t matter when I’m on the mat.”
Sasson’s medal came days after a bronze for Yarden Gerbi, 27, in the women’s 63-kg judo competition.
Israeli swimmer Andrea Murez – a Los Angeles native who studied human biology at Stanford before emigrating to Israel in 2014 – finished 35th in the heats of the women’s 50-meter freestyle on Aug. 12 in her final event of the Rio Games and failed to advance to the semifinals.
Murez, 24, failed to advance out of the heats in any of the three events in which she competed. – j. staff