Israeli team wins silver in rhythmic gymnastics, claiming nation’s 7th medal of Games
Member of squad calls second-place finish ‘the best thing that’s happened in our lives,’ while her teammate says, ‘We were so together and it was worth every second’
Israel’s team won a silver medal at the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics final on Saturday, the seventh medal for the Jewish state overall at the Paris Games.
The team scored 68.850 points in the final round of the women’s rhythmic all-round group, behind China, which scored 69.800, winning the gold.
The team consists of Shani Bakanov, 18, Adar Friedmann, 18, Romi Paritzki, 20, Ofir Shaham, 19, and Diana Svertsov, 19.
Israel’s seventh medal at the Paris Games made this year’s Olympics the the country’s most successful Games ever and brought the country’s all-time Olympic medal haul to 20.
Paritzki had said on Friday, after the team had qualified for the final, “We’re ready for tomorrow, we’ll show up renewed, focused, will give it our all… Tomorrow we’ll come even more ready.”
Joining Israel and China on the medals podium was the Italian team, which won the bronze.
The Israeli team’s members told Israel’s Sport5 channel on Saturday after their victory that they were still absorbing their success and were delighted that they could give a boost to Israel.
Speaking immediately after the medals ceremony, Paritzki said the five of them “fought to the end” after being in fifth place following the first of the final’s two exercises.
“We had such a great time,” she said, adding that “the crowd was fantastic.”
Noting that there were lots of Israeli flags in the hall, she said they are “so proud to represent the state and to lift it; we’re a strong people.”
“We’re like a family,” she said of the team. “We have crises, we have to compromise… but we were so together and it was worth every second.”
Noting that they were the eighth and last of the finalists to perform the second exercise, Shaham praised their “wonderful team” of coaches for keeping them focused.
Svertsov said that waiting for their score was “incredibly emotional” and added that they did so well “because we worked together.” Echoing a much-used slogan in Israel’s war with Hamas, she said it was “because we can only win together.”
Bakanov said they “gave up a lot over the years” to focus on their sport, “but now we can make up.”
Friedmann, the fifth of the five to speak, called the silver medal success “the best thing that’s happened in our lives.”
Israeli gymnastics champion Linoy Ashram, who won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, praised the team’s performance, telling Kan that they were incredible and made history.
“I saw how they waited for the score and it took me back to that moment. I had faith in them, I knew they could do anything and that their difficulty levels were high enough,” she said.
Knesset ministers took to social media to congratulate the team on Saturday afternoon, telling them they had made their country proud.
