PARIS – Thirty-two years ago, at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, a young Israeli, Yael Arad, won her nation’s first-ever medal in judo, a silver in the women’s under 61-kilo class. The very next day, in the men’s under-71 category, another young Israeli, Oren Smadja won a bronze.
The story of Israel at the Olympic Games, its hopes and dreams, particularly in the aftermath of 1972, is and forever will be intertwined with Yael Arad, who is far better known, because history summoned her first, but also Oren Smadja.
On Thursday, amid so much in our world that makes being Israeli at the Olympics extraordinary, with all that word conveys, destiny called again, a mixture of elation and unspeakable heartache as a new generation of Israeli judo players for the first time in that nation’s history won two medals on the same day – Arad now both president of the Israeli Olympic Committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee, Smadja the men’s national team coach.
Peter Paltchik, an Israeli flagbearer in the opening ceremony, won bronze in the men’s under-100 class. Three years ago in Tokyo, he finished seventh. “I’m thrilled to wear this Olympic medal on my neck and to bring so much joy to my people, to my country, to raising the flag so high,” he said.
Peter Paltchik in celebration after winning bronze, meeting reporters
Inbar Lanir with her silver medal
In the women’s under-78 category, 24-year-old Inbar Lanir – the 2023 world champion – won silver, the first Israeli judo player to make an Olympic final since Arad, in Barcelona. “She had the breakthrough,” Lanir said, referring to Arad. “No one had before. All the success is because of that.”
The Israelis are competing here under extreme scrutiny and intense security – even as headlines remind all here of the sobering realities in the Middle East.
Just in the past few days, in strikes widely believed to be executed by Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were assassinated in Beirut and Tehran. The conflict in Gaza has caused untold violence. Israel says perhaps 120 hostages remain in Gaza; it is unclear how many might yet be alive.
“I respect the Olympic values and the most important is world peace,” the 32-year-old Paltchik said in comments to reporters gathered before the medal ceremony. “I pray for this really with all of my heart. I don’t want to see any sacrifices, any casualties. It doesn’t matter which side, you know.
“Pain is pain.”
Later, at a news conference, he was asked again about events in what International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach often calls our “fragile” world.
“I don’t want to go deep inside of this,” Paltchik said, adding, “I want to respect the podium. Respect the Olympic values. I just can say that my heart goes to all the hostages. To all the parents who [have] lost their dearest. And to all the casualties. My heart goes to everyone and I hope for better days through all the countries – peace for everyone.”
Of course, every Israeli team travels to an Olympics mindful of what happened in Munich in 1972, when Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, and since October 7, the pressure on this Israeli team has been, in a word, profound.
Some activists and politicians made plain they didn’t want an Israeli team at these Games. Days before the opening ceremony, a member of the French parliament representing the La France Insoumise party, Thomas Portes, said Israeli athletes “are not welcome at the Paris Olympics.”
The IOC said the Israelis were welcome and security, as ever, would be priority No. 1.
Meanwhile, the local French authorities shifted a memorial for those murdered in 1972 from Paris’ City Hall to the Israeli embassy.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, was among the dignitaries here last week. It marked the first time an Israeli head of state made the start of a Games since Beijing in 2008.
The Israelis have reported being on the receiving end of all kinds of unsettling threats – messages inviting them, for instance, to their own funerals.
Inside the Paris metro, on the doors of many trains you could find stickers demanding a “ban” on Israel with a statement, in bold and capital letters, proclaiming, “Genocide is not an Olympic sport.”
Then there was the worry about the opening ceremony – the possibility of being sitting ducks in a boat on the Seine. Earlier this week, the Times of Israel reported French police had opened an investigation into death threats received by three Israeli athletes at these Games.
When the Israeli men’s soccer team played its first game, against Mali, the country’s national anthem, Hatikvah, was so loudly jeered the stadium speakers had to be turned up to drown out the noise.
At swimming, Aviv Barzelay walked out for her 100-meter backstroke to boos.
Here at judo, in the men’s under-73 class, the Algerian Messaoud Redouane Dris did not show for his first-round match with Israel’s Tohar Butbul. Officially, he failed weigh-in, by a mere 400 grams. Algeria does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Three years ago in Tokyo, another Algerian judo player refused to meet up with Butbul. The International Judo Federation said it would launch an investigation.
“When you are an Israel, you learn how to live a parallel life,” Arad, now 57, said, adding a moment later, “What we have been through since 7 October … each one of the athletes, [their] families decided to move forward … this is something that you come to, to this point with mental resilience … you go forward and gain much more.”
She went on:
“We come to compete, to fulfill a dream, to represent the Israeli spirit. To come to do it with the Olympic values. To give a lot of inspiration to the people in Israel that need this inspiration so much. To the Jewish communities around the world. This is what we’re concentrating on.
“You know, since the last 10 months, we say to our athletes, we have these days for the hostages – it’s heartbreaking on the one hand, and on the other hand, we know our existence here shows the world the bright side of humanity, showing the world the Israeli spirit, winning, competing. This is our mission.”
Lanir dominated her way to the final, defeating world No. 2 Anna Maria Wagner in the semifinal. Against Italy’s Alice Bellandi, Lanir picked up two penalties for being too passive; Bellandi scored a point on a throw; as time was winding down, Lanir picked up a third penalty, which in judo means game over.
Paltchik’s bronze-medal match came with a bit of unexpected drama. He had scored a point but had penalties. With just seconds to go in the match, another penalty was called. Was that two? Or three?
Two, it turned out, and Paltchik ran out the clock.
To get to this match, Paltchik had to survive a nearly nine-minute marathon earlier Thursday against France’s Aurelien Diesse. When it ended, Smadja, at the side of the tatami in the coach’s box, was all but drained.
In the quarterfinals, Paltchik ran into eventual gold medal winner Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan, who got him by a point. That sent Paltchik to work his way back to the bronze-medal round.
Oren Smadja after Paltchik’s early round nearly nine-minute match // Oren Aharoni // Israel Hayom
Smadja after the bronze-medal match
Pain is pain, Paltchik said, and even the bronze medal could not dim the raw grief Oren Smadja said he felt Thursday amid the joy. The awful pain he has felt every day since the day he turned 54, June 20, when the Israeli military called to tell him and his wife, Liat, that their son, Omer, had been killed by mortar fire in Gaza.
Omer Smadja was 25.
“It’s very, very hard,” he said. “Nobody can understand.”
He said a moment later, “Every day, I cry. Every day. No relief. The pain.”
Oren Smadja said he had asked his wife if it would be OK to come to the Olympics. A sense of duty impelled him to be here. She said yes, it would be OK. “She released me,” he said.
And now, now that Paltchik had done what he, Paltchik, had waited three long years for, had needed his coach here for, the two of them, everything they had worked for – did it, Oren Smadja was asked, help to ease the pain?
Even just a little?
“The medal? No. You wake up in the morning, you are very sad. Sad with something. Sad because it has happened. The sad is inside. Every moment, every second, every day, every time.”