Israel's Artem Dolgopyat celebrates with a gold medal on the podium after the Men's Floor Final during the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in Antwerp, Belgium, October 7, 2023. (Lionel BONAVENTURE/AFP)
Olympic champion Artem Dolgopyat, who won Israel’s first-ever world gymnastics gold on October 7, says he is auctioning off the medal to raise money for the Gaza border communities devastated in the onslaught by Hamas terrorists.
Dolgopyat won the the men’s floor final in Belgium. The auction price for the World Championships gold medal starts at $100,000.
“What is a world champion worth if my country is hurting? For me, the State of Israel is in first place,” Dolgopyat says.
The gymnast stood on the winners’ podium on October 7 with an Israeli flag marked with black tape as the reports came in of the horrific assault on southern Israel.
Ukraine-born Dolgopyat, 26, is considered one of Israel’s greatest athletes. He won floor silver at the worlds in 2017 and 2019, before claiming Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021. In 2022, he won a gold medal for his floor routine at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Munich, despite suffering an injury to his foot a month earlier.
Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat celebrates after winning the Men’s Floor Final during the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in Antwerp, northern Belgium, on October 7, 2023. (Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
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