It was a typically sarcastic quip of its day about the very modest achievements of Israeli sports, and it took eight more years before Yael Arad finally banished the demons of failure to win Israel’s first-ever Olympic medal.
How things have changed since 1992.
Israel’s success at the Tokyo Games that ended yesterday were unprecedented, a world away from LA ’84 or ever, really, except perhaps for the credible and famous performance of sprinter Esther Roth-Shahamorov in the 1976 Olympics, when she became the first ever Israeli athlete to reach the finals in any Olympic event, finishing sixth in the 100-meter hurdles.
Tokyo has put on memorable Games. Israel’s participants were well prepared and the nation has been rewarded with sporting pride not only because of the gymnastics Gold Medals from Artem Dolgopyat and Linoy Ashram, or the Bronzes for the judo team and Avishag Semberg in tae kwon do.
Israel’s participants reached a total of 18 finals that allowed them to vie for a podium finish. That was almost double what had been predicted before the Games.
Broadly speaking, Israel is not a country with a rich sporting culture or tradition, but it’s still very comforting for us to bask in the successes and share a tear of joy as Israel’s flag is raised high and Hatikva is played.
Those less attuned to the world of sports should be in no doubt about the uniqueness of winning an Olympic medal even if it isn’t a Gold. The tearful moments of intense celebration by so many athletes who have achieved their life’s ambition is testament to that, and a reward for years of tireless work.
And when you hear the athletes thank all the unsung heroes behind the scenes and the sponsors who helped them achieve their dream, they are not just paying lip service – they would not have made it without untold support and sacrifices by family, coaches and sponsors.
Achieving Olympic glory is the pinnacle of success in most sports, and a medal is the greatest manifestation of the best any nation has to offer. Israel’s population may number just over nine million, but the actual resource pool from which sporting success may be extracted is perhaps only half that.
The entire haredi population and the vast majority of observant Jews and the Arab population are not part of the equation because for the first two, the sacrifices needed to become elite athletes require a complete abandonment of their current lifestyle. For the latter, it is because so few resources have been devoted to offering more diverse sporting opportunities. Israel’s Arabs have shown significant abilities in soccer, but very little else. This must change. Why can’t there be an Israeli Arab on the Olympic baseball team?
Although there is little point in comparing Israel with the traditional major sporting nations, there are certainly lessons that can be learned.
Great Britain finished fourth in the Tokyo medals table behind the US, China and Japan, winning 65 medals (22 Gold) in at least 25 sports, and while amazing, it wasn’t even GB’s most successful Games.
Compare Tokyo with Atlanta in 1996, when only 15 medals, including a solitary Gold, were won. The Brits felt shame. It was an unacceptable nadir, and the following year a national body, UK Sport, was established to ensure that such paltry efforts would never be repeated.
Since then, the success has been phenomenal. It has cost billions of pounds, much through National Lottery funding, but every penny is spent according to the strictest guidelines, and sports that perform poorly, or ones where achieving success looks unlikely, will have their funding cut, or even eliminated.
Israel’s resources, both human and financial, are far more limited. But Israel’s delegation to Tokyo numbered a record 90 athletes, and to have won four medals is incredible. In order to achieve at least a similar outcome at the next two Olympiads in Paris and LA, the Israel Olympic Committee will have to be even more ruthless when it seeks to optimize the chances for more achievements. Past successes are never a guarantee of future glory.