Israel wins Paralympic silver in goalball, bronze in tennis, boosting medal count to 9
First team sport medal for Israel at the Games since 1988; Guy Sasson says he hopes his victory on the court ‘can give a small smile’ to the families of the hostages and fallen
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
With just a few days left in the Paris Paralympics, Israel won medals on Thursday in both tennis and goalball, bringing its overall medal haul to nine so far.
The women’s goalball team won a silver medal after losing to Turkey in the final match of the tournament, while tennis player Guy Sasson won bronze after besting Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan.
While tensions between the governments of Turkey and Israel have been high amid the ongoing war in Gaza, the goalball teams greeted each other warmly and Sasson and Kaplan exchanged friendly greetings before and after the match.
The goalball team lost 3-8 to Turkey to take the silver, marking Israel’s first-ever medal in the sport, and its first Paralympic team sport medal since 1988.
Israel clinched a spot in the gold medal match after beating China in the semifinal and Canada in the quarterfinal.
The six-woman team is made up of Lihi Ben David, 28; Elham Mahamid, 34; Noa Malka, 21; Gal Hamrani, 31; Or Mizrahi, 31; and Roni Ohayon, 25. In the sport, which is played exclusively by those with visual impairments, the athletes play three at a time, throwing and attempting to block a ball that is embedded with bells.
Ben David played on Thursday with a broken finger sustained during Wednesday’s semifinal match. The athletes wore yellow ribbons in their hair as a sign of solidarity with the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
“The silver medal is an honor,” Ben David told Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster after the match, noting that it is still accompanied by disappointment in missing out on the gold. “We did our part in terms of pride and we got many joyous messages from those at home in Israel” throughout the tournament. “‘Hatikvah’ we’ll sing out loud in the Olympic Village, nobody will silence us.”
Earlier in the day, Sasson won the bronze after besting Kaplan in a tough match at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris. Sasson lost the first set 7-5 to Kaplan before coming back to beat him 6-4 in the second set, appearing to gain energy as his opponent flagged, ultimately winning the third set 6-1 to take the medal.
Following his victory, Sasson wrapped himself in the Israeli flag and held another flag aloft as he celebrated on the court.
“It was a match full of emotion and full of energy, and I imagine that it will set in soon that I’m an Olympic medalist,” Sasson told Sport5. “If I managed to make people watching at home a little happy, especially the families of the fallen and the hostages, if this hope and this joy can give them a small smile on their faces, then I think we’ve done our part.”
The athlete said that before every match he always watches a video related to the hostages or those who have been killed, “and it gives me drive and a lot of motivation.”
Before the bronze medal match, he said, he listened to a song written about May Naim, the granddaughter of soccer icon Shlomo Scharf, who was murdered at the Supernova rave on October 7. An emotional Sasson added that “if knowing this will make them happy, then that’s what I won with.”
Sasson was sent to the bronze medal match earlier this week after losing to the Netherlands’ Sam Schroder in the semifinal, following a win over the UK’s Gregory Slade in the quarterfinal and after besting Chile’s Francisco Cayulef in his first-round match.
Sasson, 44, was injured in a 2015 snowboarding accident that left him in a wheelchair. He won the 2024 French Open earlier this year, his first major single’s title.
Earlier in the day, competitive shooter Yulia Chernoy finished 5th overall in the final of the mixed 50m rifle prone competition. Chernoy, 44, was one of eight finalists who advanced earlier in the day to the final round, out of 36 overall competitors.
“I have a lot of emotions,” she told Sport5 after the competition. “I made it to the final and today the level was super high in the final. I did my best, I’m sorry I couldn’t make you happy with a medal… yalla, I’m ready for the next games in four years.”
Chernoy saw her best-ever Paralympic finish in Paris, where she is competing in her third Games. The Kazakhstan native was born with cerebral palsy and moved to Israel in 2000, competing as a rower before switching to shooting.
Thursday also saw a disappointing outcome for handcyclist Amit Hasdai, who had to drop out of the men’s road race partway through after his handcycle got a flat tire. On Wednesday, Hasdai — who made his Paralympic debut in Paris — finished fourth overall in the men’s time trial.
“I managed to finish in fourth in the time trial, I’m less satisfied with today but we’ll keep going, I will keep going,” he said in an interview with Sport5. Overall, he said, his first Paralympics have been “an incredible experience, people here are very strong but I managed to compete — at the next games I’ll do better.”
On Friday, Israel’s canoers will get their chance in the spotlight when Irina Shafir competes in the va’a women’s 200m race, and Talia Eilat races in the women’s 200m kayak. Plus swimmers Ami Dadaon, Ariel Malyar and Mark Malyar will all take to the pool for further freestyle competitions, with Dadaon heavily favored to bring home yet another medal.
