Asaf Yasur wins gold in taekwondo, Israel’s first Paris Paralympics medal

( JTA ) — Israeli Asaf Yasur won a gold medal Thursday in taekwondo, Israel’s first medal at the Paris Paralympics.

Yasur defeated Turkish opponent Ali Can Ozcan by a score of 19-12 in the gold medal match for the 58-kilogram weight class in the K44 disability class. Yasur had won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches 23-6 and 16-6, respectively.

The 22-year-old, who trains at the Sharabi Martial Arts club in the central city of Ramle, Israel, is a two-time world champion who is making his Paralympics debut. Both of Yasur’s hands were amputated when he was 13 years old after an electrocution accident.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Yasur on Friday to congratulate him, saying he “brought a national achievement and great pride.”

“I am on cloud nine,” Yasur told Netanyahu in Hebrew, according to the prime minister’s office. “This result came after a long time and much hard work. This is the most fun possible. I have been training for nine and a half years and Baruch Hashem in the last two years there have been good results and we reached the top — Paris. After a long day and three tense fights, it ended in the best way from our perspective.”

Yasur won the 2021 and 2023 World Para Taekwondo Championships, as well as a gold medal at the 2024 European Championships and a silver at the 2023 European Para Championships, all in the 58-kilogram class. He arrived in Paris as the top-ranked competitor in the world in his disability and weight class.

Yasur is one of 28 Israelis competing at the Paralympics, a cohort that features a number of returning medalists, an Oct. 7 survivor , a Druze athlete and three Muslim athletes. Yasur’s medal is Israel’s 385th total medal in the Games, dating back to the inaugural Summer Paralympics in 1960.