Israel at the Olympics

Not to be confused with Israel at the Paralympics.

Israel at the Olympic Games
Flag of Israel IOC code  ISR NOC Olympic Committee of Israel Website www.olympic.one.co.il (Hebrew) (English)
Olympic history
Summer Games
1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Winter Games
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Israel has competed at the Olympic Games as a nation since 1952. Its National Olympic Committee was formed in 1933 during the British Mandate of Palestine. As the team represented the Jewish community, it boycotted the 1936 Games in Germany in protest of the Nazi Party's anti-Semitic policies.

Israel has sent a team to each Summer Olympic Games since 1952 (except when they participated in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics) and to each Winter Olympic Games since 1994.

In 1972, 11 members of the Israeli delegation were murdered by members of Black September Palestinian terrorist group.

History

In 1933 the Palestine National Olympic Committee was officially formed, and was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in May 1934, despite never competing. Although this committee represented Jews, Christians and Muslims their rules stated that they "represent[ed] the Jewish National Home."

Israel was previously part of the Asian Games Federation until it was disbanded in 1981. In 1982 instead of joining the new Olympic Council of Asia, Israel opted to join the European Olympic Committees.

Competing

Israel won its first Olympic medal in its tenth Olympic appearance, in 1992, in Judoka when Yael Arad won a silver metal. She was followed a day later by another judoka, Oren Smadja, who won bronze. Since then, Israel won at least one medal in five successive Summer Olympics until the streak ended in 2012. In 2004, Gal Fridman became Israel's first and only gold medallist in men's windsurfing. This was his second medal, following his bronze in 1996, and he is the only multi-medallist.

Israel has been more successful at the Paralympic Games than at the Olympics, with 380 medals between 1960 and 2012.

Competing against Iran

The government of Iran has taken steps to avoid any competition between its athletes and those from Israel. An Iranian judoka, Arash Miresmaeili, did not compete in a match against Israeli Ehud Vaks during the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was officially disqualified for being overweight, however Miresmaeli was awarded US$125,000 in prize money by the Iranian government, an amount paid to all Iranian gold medal winners. The International Judo Federation conducted an investigation to see if he intentionally came in underweight in order to miss the bout. He was officially cleared of intentionally avoiding the bout, but his receipt of the prize money raised suspicion.

1936 Boycott

Individual Jewish athletes from a number of countries chose to boycott the Berlin Olympics. In the United States, the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee supported a boycott.

Medal tables

Gold medalist windsurfer Gal Fridman

Medals by Games

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal count

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1992 Barcelona	0	1	1	2
1996 Atlanta	0	0	1	1
2000 Sydney	0	0	1	1
2004 Athens	1	0	1	2
2008 Beijing	0	0	1	1
2012 London	0	0	0	0
Total	1	1	5	7

Medals by sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Sailing	1	0	2	3
Judo	0	1	2	3
Canoeing	0	0	1	1
Total	1	1	5	7

List of medalists

Medal	Name	Games	Sport	Event
Silver	Yael Arad	1992 Barcelona	Judo	Women's half middleweight
Bronze	Oren Smadja	1992 Barcelona	Judo	Men's lightweight
Bronze	Gal Fridman	1996 Atlanta	Sailing	Men's sailboard
Bronze	Michael Kolganov	2000 Sydney	25px Canoeing	Men's K-1 500 metres
Bronze	Ariel Zeevi	2004 Athens	Judo	Men's half heavyweight
Gold	Gal Fridman	2004 Athens	Sailing	Men's sailboard
Bronze	Shahar Tzuberi	2008 Beijing	Sailing	Men's sailboard

Olympic participants

320 athletes were members of the Israeli Olympic delegation, though six of them didn't actually take part in competitions.

Athletes by sports:

Sport	Athletes	Games	Years
Summer Olympics
Athletics	49	14	1952–1984, 1992–2012
Swimming	44	15	1952–2012
Football	35	2	1968, 1976
Gymnastics	31	9	1960, 1976–1992, 2000–2012
Sailing	31	10	1972–2012
Shooting	26	14	1952, 1960–2012
Judo	18	8	1976–1984, 1992–2012
Wrestling	14	7	1972–1976, 1988–2004
Basketball	13	1	1952
Fencing	13	9	1960, 1972–1984, 1992–2008
Weightlifting	11	6	1960, 1972–1984, 1992–1996
Tennis	9	6	1984–1992, 2004–2012
Canoe/Kayak	6	5	1984, 1996–2008
Boxing	5	3	1984–1988, 1996
Taekwondo	2	2	2004–2008
Cycling	2	1	1960
Table tennis	1	1	2004
Badminton	1	1	2012
Winter Olympics
Skating	8	5	1994–2010
Skiing	1	2	2006–2010

Munich massacre

The eleven members of Israel's 1972 Olympic team murdered during the Munich massacre:

• David Berger, 28, weightlifter
• Ze'ev Friedman, 28, weightlifter
• Yossef Gutfreund, 40, wrestling referee
• Eliezer Halfin, 24, wrestler
• Yossef Romano, 31, weightlifter
• Amitzur Shapira, 40, track coach
• Kehat Shorr, 53, shooting coach
• Mark Slavin, 18, wrestler
• Andre Spitzer, 27, fencing coach
• Yakov Springer, 51, weightlifting judge
• Moshe Weinberg, 33, wrestling coach