60 sporting heroes for 60 years: No. 31 Eitan Urbach

By JEREMY LAST
Until the 2000 Summer games in Sydney, no Israeli swimmer had ever made it to an individual Olympic final. Aged 23, Eitan Urbach made history in Australia when he competed in the final of the 100m backstroke final. Although he finished eighth out of eight swimmers, he had already written himself into the record books with an Israeli best of 55.31s in the semifinal. This was not Urbach's first Olympic final, however. Four years earlier he had been a member of the four-man Israel team to compete in the 4x100m medley relay, where they also finished in eighth place. Considered one of Israel's best ever swimmers, Urbach swam for Auburn Univeristy as a student, where he competed in the 1997 NCAA swimming tournament. The highlights of his career came when he won a silver medal in the 100m backstroke at the European long course championships in Seville the year he competed at Auburn and when he won a bronze in the same event in Istanbul in 1999. Tomorrow: Probably the greatest sailing pair Israel has ever produced