Five Jewish athletes who were standouts at top Division-I sports programs in the Bay Area will soon be competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics — not for the U.S., but for Israel. Here’s a brief look at their achievements.
Maor Tiyouri
Tiyouri is a 33-year-old long-distance runner from Kfar Saba, a city near Tel Aviv, who began running as a child in Israel and ran for the University of San Francisco during her college years. She helped the Dons win four consecutive West Coast Conference cross-country titles before graduating from the private Jesuit university in 2014. Tiyouri, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, will be competing in the marathon at the Olympics, after posting a swift time of 2 hours, 26 minutes and 39 seconds in April at a race in the Netherlands. This is Tiyouri’s third Olympic Games.
Andi Murez
Andrea “Andi” Murez has a resume that would make any Jewish mother kvell. In 2013 she graduated pre-med from Stanford University where she was a standout swimmer. The following year she made aliyah, moving to Israel to swim for its national team. She also enrolled in medical school at prestigious Tel Aviv University, where she graduated in 2023 with a degree in psychiatry. “After a long day of medical studies, I had to swim to stay in shape for the next Olympics — and exercise is a good way to relieve stress,” she told a Stanford interviewer. Murez, 32, will compete in the 100-meter relay at the Games. This is also her third Olympics.
Leah and Ron Polonsky
Leah and Ron Polonsky are Haifa-born siblings who moved to the U.S. to swim for two top Bay Area programs; Ron for Stanford and Leah for Cal. Astoundingly, both qualified to swim for Israel at this year’s Games. They’re “both known for being extremely hard workers,” Cal assistant swim coach David Marsh told the Associated Press. The Polonsky family followed the college athletes from Israel to the Bay Area, where the swimmers’ parents and two younger siblings settled in San Jose. Leah, 22, and Ron, 23, will compete in freestyle and breaststroke events for Israel.
Ayla Spitz
Ayla Spitz, 22, was also a standout swimmer at UC Berkeley, where she placed fifth at the NCAA Championships in 2021 in the 500-meter freestyle, among other accolades. Spitz (no relation to the gold medalist Mark Spitz) earned a degree in political economy at Berkeley, then enrolled in a master’s program at Northwestern University and swam for another season under a Covid-19 fifth year of eligibility. The 5-foot-8 freestyler hails from Southern California.