‘The athletes proved that the Israeli spirit cannot be stopped’: Olympic delegation arrives home

By Amy Spiro

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12 August 2024, 7:11 pm

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Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel

Gymnast Artem Dolgopyat (left) and sailors Tom Reuveny (center) and Sharon Kantor pose with their silver, gold and silver Olympic medals in Paris on August 4, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Yael Arad, the president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, says in a press conference after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport that Israel’s seven-medal haul in Paris surpassed every expectation after “a very difficult year.”

Arad says that when Israeli Olympic officials earlier this year “set 4-5 medals as the goal, people raised their eyebrows,” suggesting that the effects of the war had harmed Israel’s ability to train and compete at the highest level.

“As you saw over the past two and a half weeks, this delegation surpassed all imagination,” says Arad. “The athletes proved that the Israeli spirit is something that cannot be stopped.”

Arad specifically thanks all the many Israeli security bodies involved in protecting the athletes and the delegation, who “allowed all of us to do what we came to Paris to do… without them we wouldn’t have been able to.”