Rhythmic gymnastics earned the talented Israeli team a bronze medal in the World Cup Championships and the right to compete in the Olympic Games.
By GREER FAY CASHMANRythmic gymnastics 521(photo credit: REUTERS/Sergio Moraes)
■ RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS, which is one of the most graceful of all sports, earned the talented Israeli team a bronze medal last Saturday in the World Cup Championships and the right to compete in the Olympic Games in London next year. It also proved yet again what a boon the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union has been to Israel.There is no doubt that major elements from this immigration have boosted Israel’s cultural resources, especially in music, dance and theater, but also in sports, where many of the outstanding athletes were either born in the former Soviet Union or are the offspring of parents who came from there during the past 25 years.This certainly applies to the overwhelming majority of rhythmic gymnasts.Israel competed against talented groups from 17 other countries at Tel Aviv’s Hadar Yosef National Sports Center, winning third place in the five balls exercise and in the three ribbons and two hoops exercise.Katerina Pisetsky, who was captain of the Israeli Rhythmic Gymnastics Team at the Beijing Olympics, gave a brilliant exhibition performance while the scores were being tallied, and the elasticity and strength of her body were truly remarkable. Rhythmic gymnastics is not only a sport but also a form of entertainment. Its exponents are all dancers as well as gymnasts but have much more flexibility than the average dancer.Retired pole vaulting champion Alex Averbukh, who represented Israel at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Athens and Beijing and brought home gold and silver medals from other international athletic events, is yet another immigrant from the FSU. He was at Hadar Yosef on Saturday to cheer on the Israeli team, and in a brief exchange with a Channel 1 sportscaster conveyed his best wishes to the four Israeli athletes who went to South Korea to compete in the Daegu World Athletics Championships that are being held in the magnificent Daegu Stadium, where nearly all 68,000 tickets have been sold.
■ ALTHOUGH HE was born and raised in Jerusalem and served on the Jerusalem City Council from 1993 to 2002, singer, stage and screen actor and director, television host and radio current affairs commentator Yehoram Gaon has for some years lived in Ramat Hasharon, where he has been instrumental in helping Mayor Itzik Rochberger, otherwise known as the singing mayor, to boost the cultural image of the city.Last week, Gaon headed the panel of judges of the Hallelujah 2011 song festival in which 12 finalists, selected from among 290 competitors from across the Jewish world, vied for star status. The event, which was held in Ramat Hasharon, attracted a lot of media attention. The winner, Adam Kleinberg of Mexico, received in addition to his $8,000 prize the opportunity to perform and record with a well-known Israeli singer, as well as tour Jewish communities around the globe. Kleinberg will be a singing ambassador for Israel but will also be groomed in how to deliver Israel’s message.Thrilled not only to have the event in his city but also by the amount of attention that it brought to Ramat Hasharon, Rochberger will be happy to host the Hallelujah song contest on a permanent basis. Gaon is also in favor of the idea.■ EDUCATION MINISTER Gideon Sa’ar is truly dedicated to the job – so much so that he attended two education conferences in different parts of the country on the same day. On Monday afternoon he gave the opening address on “The State of Education” at the Haifa Conference on Education in the Haifa Auditorium on the Carmel; and on Monday evening he delivered the closing address at the Holon Education Forum, which convened at Mediatech. The Forum’s slogan was “To fix the world means to fix education.”Sa’ar was not the only minister who spoke in Haifa. Another was Communications and Welfare and Social Services minister Moshe Kahlon, who is a political science alumnus from the University of Haifa, so he was there to do his alma mater proud.■ AUGUST IS festival time, and even though a few festivals were canceled or abridged due to the security situation in the South, most summer events went ahead as scheduled. Among them was the Coca-Cola-sponsored Summer Love festival on Nitzanim Beach, where singers Zvika Pik and Lior Narkis succeeded in attracting a crowd of more than 15,000 teenyboppers, who braved the heat and the humidity. It was one of those occasions that, despite the frenzy, everyone was willing to stop for the pause that refreshes.
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