( JTA ) — Tom Reuveny won Israel’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics Saturday in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing final, while Sharon Kantor nabbed silver in the women’s event and artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat won silver in the floor exercise.
The three medals bring Israel’s total count in Paris to six, surpassing Israel’s previous record of four at a single Olympics, which it achieved at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Saturday was also the first time Israel won three medals in a single day.
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. Israel last won a sailing medal in 2008.
Reuveny and Kantor each won their first-ever medals, while Dolgopyat had won gold in the men’s floor exercise in Tokyo . He is now the first Israeli athlete to medal at consecutive Olympics.
Israel has now won 19 Olympic medals, five of which have come in sailing events. Judo is Israel’s most decorated sport, with nine. Israel earlier won three medals in judo in Paris, two silvers and one bronze.
Reuveny mentioned that the country’s unprecedented success has come in wartime.
“My brother has been a combat soldier since the war began,” Reuveny, 24, told Reuters after his win.
“It was so hard to go training while everyone else was crying over lost people, dead people,” Reuveny added. “It’s been so hard and I still had to put my head down and keep training and it’s all for this moment.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Reuveny to congratulate him on his gold medal win, according to the Times of Israel , telling the windsurfer, “You made an entire nation happy, a nation that is at war and that is praying for the return of its hostages… you brought us a great light… you caused our national anthem to be played at this Olympics in Paris.”
Dolgopyat, who was born in what is now Dnipro, Ukraine, and moved to Israel when he was 12, said after his win that the feat brought him some much-needed relief. He had come to Paris as a medal favorite but underperformed in the qualifying round.
“I had difficult months in training and in the qualifying round I didn’t do so well and didn’t know if I’d pass,” Dolgopyat said, according to the Times of Israel. “I fell into a sort of depression. The team helped me and picked me up… I came today feeling very good… Now I’m the happiest I could be.”
Kantor, the first Israeli woman to win a sailing medal, celebrated her country’s overall success after her silver medal.
“Look how many medals we’ve won!” Kantor said. “First in judo and now here. It’s incredible.”
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