Ami Dadaon gives Israeli Paralympic team second gold medal with swimming victory
23-year-old sets men’s 100m freestyle record, as does rower Moran Samuel in women’s single sculls; Adnan Milad, Nadav Levi advance due to boycotts by Iranian, Tunisian opponents
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Israeli swimmer Ami Dadaon won a gold medal on Friday in the men’s 100m freestyle in the S4 disability at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, capping off a second-straight successful day for Israeli Paralympians.
Dadaon clinched the win with a time of 1:20.25 after setting a new Paralympic record of 1:19.33 earlier in the day.
Winner of three medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Dadaon was born with cerebral palsy and started swimming at age 6. The 23-year-old is set to compete later in the Paris Games in the 150m individual medley, 200m freestyle and 50m freestyle.
Dadaon’s win marks the second medal for Israel at the 2024 Paralympics after taekwondo fighter Asaf Yasur won gold on Thursday.
Adnan Milad, also a Taekwondoin, qualified for the bronze medal match in the men’s under-63kg weight class after his Iranian opponent in the repechage round, Saeid Sadeghianpour, refused to show up to compete against the Israeli, handing him a default win. Milad ultimately lost the bronze medal to Italy’s Antonio Bossolo.
Milad won his first match of the day against South Korea’s Lee Dongho 27-12 but lost 30-7 in the quarterfinal to Turkey’s Mahmut Bozteke, sending the Arab-Israeli athlete to the repechage round.
Milad, 23, lost his arm in an electrocution accident when he was 17, similar to Yasur, who lost his hands in an electrocution accident when he was 13 years old. Yasur’s father was the person who convinced Milad to take up para-taekwondo after his injury.
Milad was not the only Israeli athlete to receive a technical victory due to a boycott: Tunisian boccia player Achraf Tayahi refused to show up for his match on Friday against Israel’s Nadav Levi. Tayahi also withdrew from Thursday’s match against his Brazilian opponent in protest of being placed in the same pool as the Israeli competitor.
A source in the Tunisian delegation told the UK-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site that Tayahi’s decision to withdraw “represents a victory for the Palestinian cause.”
Meanwhile, Israeli wheelchair tennis player Adam Berdichevsky beat Italy’s Luca Arca in his first match in the men’s singles at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. He will next face Chile’s Alexander Cataldo on Saturday.
“It felt incredible to play in front of this crowd,” Berdichevsky told Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster after the win. “It’s just a first round but with all the love it felt like a gold medal, but I still have a long way to go.”
Noting that it is his first Paralympic match win after appearances in both Rio and Tokyo, the tennis player said the match was “good preparation for the next game.”
Berdichevsky, 41, who lost his leg in a boating accident in Thailand in 2007, is also a survivor of the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7. He has been displaced since the attack and living mostly in Eilat while trying to keep up with his Paralympic training.
“For around two months after October 7 I barely trained,” he said, noting that he then spent time in the US where he could practice, and “I don’t know how I got here in good shape, but somehow I managed.”
Earlier Friday, Israel’s goalball team won its opening match against Brazil 8-4 in the group stage.
The Israeli goalball team — comprised of Lihi Ben David, Elham Mahamid, Noa Malka, Gal Hamrani, Or Mizrahi and Roni Ohayon, who are all visually impaired — will face Turkey’s team on Saturday, and China on Sunday.
The members of the Israeli team wore yellow ribbons in their hair, in honor of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
After the win, Ben David told Sport5 that in the team’s first game, they were “feeling the atmosphere, the crowd, the field — every game isn’t easy but we have something to offer and we’ve started.”
Malka added that the team is “sure of ourselves and what we have to give — we’re starting in the group stage and ramping up every game.”
Israeli rowers were also successful Friday, with returning medalist Moran Samuel winning her heat and setting a new Paralympic record in the women’s single sculls with 9:58.02, securing one of two automatic spots in Sunday’s final.
“It’s an incredible feeling to set a new Paralympic record, a great improvement to drop under 10 minutes,” Samuel said shortly after the race. “I’m ready for the final!”
Israeli rowing duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin also advanced to Sunday’s final of the mixed double sculls rowing after finishing second in their heat.
Shmulik Daniel finished second in his heat in the men’s single sculls, just missing out on an automatic final spot, and will instead compete in Saturday’s repechage round in an attempt to advance.
Badminton player Nina Gorodetzky lost to Japan’s Sarina Satomi, and on Saturday she will compete against China’s Yin Menglu in her final game of the group stage.
