Facing threats, Israeli Paralympians aim for gold in swimming, tennis, taekwondo in Paris
27 athletes in delegation competing in 10 different sports, with ‘extra motivation’ while hearing echoes of the boycott calls which surrounded their Olympic counterparts

Twenty-seven Israeli athletes will compete in 10 different sports at this year’s Paralympic Games in Paris, which begin with the opening ceremony on Wednesday evening.
Competing on the same equipment and in the same arenas as the recently departed Olympians, 4,400 athletes from 168 nations will strive to take home gold, silver and bronze in 22 different sporting branches.
The Israeli delegation will take part in swimming, rowing, boccia, tennis, badminton, taekwondo, shooting, goalball, handcycling and canoeing, hoping to match or top its performance at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“We have put together an incredible delegation with wonderful athletes, the most Israeli delegation that could be — we have native Israelis, new immigrants, Muslims, Druze, 50% women and 50% men, an incredible delegation,” said Moshe “Mutz” Matalon, the chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee.
And while the Paralympics has perhaps even more of an ethos of inclusion and unity, the Israeli delegation has faced similar threats and calls for boycotts as their Olympic counterparts who competed earlier this month. A German company even refused to supply Israel’s goalball team, citing the war.
French security officials said last week that the Israeli Paralympians will receive 24/7 protection, just like the Israeli Olympic delegation, and the Shin Bet is also playing a role in securing the athletes. Paralympic officials have rejected any effort to bar Israeli athletes from the Games.

Matalon noted that he competed in the 1976 Montreal Paralympics — the first Games following the massacre of 11 Israelis in Munich — “and [the security] was crazy, and I think this is even greater, for obvious reasons.”
The athletes and the rest of the delegation, he said, are prepared for every response and have been working to steel themselves for potential protests and provocations.
“We’re very focused on it, and I’ll say that it gives the group extra motivation,” he said. “It’s clear to us that there will be provocations, that people will boo, but we’re preparing them for it mentally.”
Israel came home from the Tokyo Paralympics with nine medals — eight of them in swimming — its highest total since 2004 in Athens, when it took home 13 medals. Six of Israel’s medals at the 2020 Games were gold, which is the highest figure since the 1988 Paralympic Games in Seoul.
Israel’s strongest medal hopes this year are expected to be in swimming, rowing, taekwondo and shooting. Medalists at the Paralympics will receive an equal state-funded bonus to that of Olympic medalists: NIS 1 million ($275,500) for gold, NIS 700,000 ($189,400) for silver and NIS 500,000 ($135,280) for bronze.
Matalon said he is “cautious” to talk about potential medals in Paris, noting that success at the Games can often depend on seeding and “how you wake up that morning, but the readiness is very high.”

“We have a world champion in shooting, Yulia [Chernoy], and we have Asaf Yasur who is a world champion in taekwondo, and we have Guy Sasson who won in the Roland Garros, and those are all potentials,” said Matalon. “And we have the swimmers, and I hope in rowing we’ll also bring something.”
Two of the three three of the swimming powerhouses who brought home multiple medals each at the last games will be returning in Paris: Mark Malyar and Ami Dadaon. They will be joined in the pool by Mark’s twin brother, Ariel Malyar, as well as Veronika Guirenko, who competed for Israel in both Rio and Tokyo.
Ariel and Mark, now 24, were born with cerebral palsy, and began swimming at age 5 as part of their physical therapy. The brothers, who compete in different disability classes, both made their Paralympic debut in Tokyo. Ariel came home empty-handed, while Mark racked up a series of wins, including gold in the 400m freestyle, where he set a new world record, gold in the 200m individual medley, setting another gold record, and bronze in the 100m backstroke.
Dadaon, 23, also returns to Paris with three Tokyo medals — gold in the 50m freestyle, silver in the 150m individual medley and gold in the 200m freestyle, setting a world record. Dadaon, 23, born with cerebral palsy, began swimming at age 6. A year after the games he won three gold medals at the World Para Swimming Championships, and last year he picked up a whopping four golds at the 2023 championships.

Iyad Shalabi, who won two gold medals in swimming at the Tokyo Games — becoming the first Arab-Israeli to win a medal for Israel at either an Olympic or Paralympic Games — was originally slated to join the delegation in Paris but pulled out at the last minute, citing his father’s deteriorating health.
Also making a return in Paris is rower Moran Samuel, one of Israel’s best-known Paralympians, who won a bronze medal in Rio and a silver in Tokyo. Samuel, 42, suffered a spinal stroke at age 24 that left her in a wheelchair. At the time she was playing for Israel’s national basketball team, and eventually she retrained as a wheelchair basketball player, later switching to pararowing, and making her Olympic debut in London in 2012.
Rowing for Israel alongside Samuel in Paris will be Shmulik Daniel, who also represented Israel at the Tokyo Games. Daniel, 39, was wounded in 2005 with a spinal injury while serving in Har Dov during his army service and has used a wheelchair ever since.
And in the mixed double skull rowing, Israel will be represented by the duo of Shahar Milfelder, 26, and Saleh Shahin, 41, both making their Olympic debuts. Milfelder was diagnosed with cancer as a teen and had to have a portion of her pelvis removed. Shahin, who is Druze, was working as a security guard for the Airports Authority at a Gaza border crossing in 2005 when several terrorists attacked the crossing, killing six people and wounding Shahin and four others.

Israel is also sending two kayakers to the Paralympics, Talia Eilat, 26, who uses a wheelchair following a spinal aneurysm when she was a teen, and Dr. Irina Shafir, 41, a physician who was injured during acrobatic training in 2019.
One to look out for at the games is taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur, 22, who lost both of his hands after an electrocution accident when he was 13. Yasur, making his Olympic debut in Paris, won a gold medal at both the 2021 and the 2023 World Para-Taekwondo Championships in the under-58kg weight class and is considered one of the strongest Israeli medal contenders.
Also on the mat will be Adnan Milad, 23, competing in taekwondo in the under-63kg weight class, who lost his right hand after an electrocution accident while helping his father work on a kibbutz when he was 17. While hospitalized he was visited by the father of Asaf Yasur, who convinced Milad to explore taekwondo as part of his rehab — and six years later, both young men are heading to the Paralympics.
For Yulia Chernoy, 44, this will be her third Paralympic Games, though not all in the same sport. In 2016 in Rio, Chernoy — who was born in Kazakhstan with cerebral palsy and moved to Israel in 2000 — competed in mixed rowing. She later switched to shooting, competing at the Tokyo Games in the mixed 10m and 50m prone air rifle competitions. In 2023, Chernoy won both a gold and a bronze at the World Shooting Para Sport Championships.

Boccia player Nadav Levi is also making his third Olympic appearance, following his attendance at both the Rio and Tokyo Games. Levi, 45, was born with cerebral palsy and is one of the founders of the Israeli boccia scene — a wheelchair lawn bowling-type sport.
Israel is also sending four wheelchair tennis players to Paris, including Guy Sasson, who won the 2024 French Open in wheelchair quad men’s singles. Sasson, 44, was injured in a 2015 snowboarding accident that left him in a wheelchair.
Competing in the men’s singles are also Sergei Lysov, 20, a native of Russia who moved to Israel as a teen and is making his Paralympic debut, and Adam Berdichevsky, 41, who lost his leg in a boating accident in Thailand in 2007. Berdichevsky, attending his third Paralympic Games, is one of Israel’s flag-bearers and a resident of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, along the Gaza border, who was holed up in his reinforced room for 14 hours on October 7 before being rescued and evacuated to Eilat.
The only female tennis player in this year’s delegation is Maayan Zikri, 19, who lost her leg as a child in an amusement park accident during a family vacation. She first competed in wheelchair basketball before later switching to tennis, and Paris will be her first Paralympics.
In Badminton, Israel is sending Nina Gorodetzky, 43, a native of Georgia who moved to Israel at age 11 and was paralyzed in a car accident as a teenager. Gorodetzky will be competing at her second Paralympics, while fellow Badminton player Amir Levi, 46 — who was wounded during his IDF service — is attending his first Games.
The third of the three members of this year’s Israeli delegation who were wounded during their army service is Amit Hasdai, 41, who is racing in handcycling.

And the only team sport Israel is competing in at the Paris Paralympics is goalball — which is designed for the visually impaired — sending back its six-woman team for the third year running.
This year’s lineup includes Lihi Ben David, 28 — Israel’s other flag-bearer — Elham Mahamid, 34, Noa Malka, 21, Gal Hamrani, 31, Or Mizrahi, 31, and Roni Ohayon, 25. The team is also accompanied to Paris by two seeing-eye dogs, Rudy and Dylan.
“If we bring home six medals, I’ll be happy, if we’ll bring more I’ll be overjoyed,” said Matalon, noting however that it wasn’t about himself or any one athlete: “It’s about the honor of the country, it’s about the flag of the country.”
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