From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Israeli Paralympic gold medalist says ‘this is the minimum I can do for my country’
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Paralympic gold medalist Asaf Yasur says he is overjoyed with his win at the Paris Games, and dedicates the medal to his “beloved country.”
“There is no one happier than me, I have no words,” he says in an interview with Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster just minutes after his victory. “Thank you to my team, to my family who came, to the people of Israel who supported me, to all the people who took part in my journey to this point today.”
Yasur, 22, says he came into the day’s competitions saying “I want the gold, I’m going to fight for the gold, nobody will take it from me, and I fought for it.” The athlete says he faced a tough competitor in the final round in Turkey’s Ali Can Ozcan, “we both fought and the better man won.”
The athlete notes that it’s been almost a decade since he lost both his arms in an electrocution accident, “but let’s put that aside. I went through rehab, I went through a lot and today I’m an athlete in every sense.”
Yasur notes that three of his brothers are combat soldiers who spent significant time fighting over the past year during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza as well as on the northern front, and they “give me so much strength.”
“With everything my country is going through… this is the minimum I can do for my country,” he says. “I pray that the hostages will come home, all of them, every one, that the soldiers will return home to their families healthy and whole, so that this war will end.”
The medal around his neck, he says, “is dedicated to my beloved country.”
