Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, struck gold again on Sunday at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Munich.
Dolgopyat was the seventh of eight finalists in the tournament. His score of 14.966 overtook that of Hungarian Christopher Masaruch who scored 14.600. The eighth finalist, British Jake German, failed to overtake Dolgopyat with a score of 14.433.
Dolgopyat won the medal despite having an injured foot.
Dolgpyat's previous medals
This was Dolgopyat’s seventh medal for floor exercises and his third gold. He won his last gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed to 2021.
“I’m very very tired now but happy,” he told an interviewer when he received his medal. “I did what I could. I have a problem with the foot.
"I only prepared for two weeks, but I did it and I'm delighted."
Artem Dolgopyat
Politicians took to social media to congratulate Dolgopyat, including opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu who wrote on Facebook, “He brought great honor to us all.”
Getting married in Israel?
Dolgopyat, 25, was born in Ukraine to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother and immigrated 13 years ago. His athletic prominence has raised questions about his legal inability to marry his fiancée in Israel.
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, who represents many immigrants from the former Soviet Union, commented on Netanyahu’s post to challenge his position on civil marriage, an issue that particularly affects this voting constituency.
“Bibi, after congratulating Artem, I’m sure that you will promote a civil marriage law together with the next Knesset so that he can get married in Israel.”
Because Dolgopyat’s mother is not Jewish, he is not Jewish according to Jewish law, despite his father being Jewish. As a result, he cannot get married legally in Israel, like many other immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Civil marriage could change that.