Rowers take gold, bronze as Israel continues to rack up Paralympic medals
Champ Moran Samuel says the day, like the year, held mixed emotions; Druze rower Saleh Shahin, wounded in 2005 Gaza border terror attack, says he wanted to bring some ‘light’ to nation
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Israeli rowers took home gold and bronze medals in the water on Sunday at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, providing a glimmer of joy for the Jewish state amid a notably difficult day.
Moran Samuel clinched the gold medal in the women’s single sculls, after winning a bronze medal in Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020, while rowing duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin won bronze in the mixed double sculls in their Paralympic debut.
“This whole year has been happiness mixed with sadness, and we started today” with terrible news, she said in an interview with Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster, referencing news of the deaths of six hostages in Gaza whose bodies were recovered overnight and three police officers in a West Bank shooting attack on Sunday.
“This morning when I got here, I told myself, ‘Moran, this is due to, this is because of and this is despite'” the difficult situation facing Israel at home, she said. “It’s a privilege to be here in this bubble at the Paralympic Games, and to finish with a gold medal — and to be able to scream the anthem from deep inside me is a moment I’ll never forget in my life.”
Samuel said that when she crossed the finish line, she burst into tears, “due to everything together, the excitement, and the news of the morning. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to sing the anthem… my heart is with everyone. I hope everyone comes home.”
The athlete, who was a promising basketball player in her youth, suffered a spinal stroke at age 24 that left her in a wheelchair. She first began training in wheelchair basketball before switching to para-rowing due to the lack of a high-level women’s team in Israel.
“There was a moment in my life where I thought my life was over,” Samuel said of her injury and recovery. “And I had to make that switch from ‘my life was over’ to ‘the life that I knew until then was over,’ and there are a lot of people who have to make that switch and it’s not easy.”
Samuel, 42, said Sunday that after winning bronze, silver and now gold and appearing in four Paralympic Games, she is done competing internationally, and welcomes the next generation of Israeli rowers to pick up the mantle.
The bronze medal-winning rowing duo also referenced the difficult news of the day in an interview after picking up their hardware on the medal podium.
Shahin told Sport5 that as they started their race in the mixed double sculls, they heard “Hatikvah” playing during Samuel’s medal ceremony, and it gave them an extra push forward to the bronze medal.
After a morning of difficult news, he added, “I got a hold of myself and said that we have to provide some light at the end of the tunnel, to at least bring some honor to the country in these difficult times, and we did it.”
Milfelder said that “this morning I cried from the terrible news, and now I’m crying from the good news. I’m sending the biggest hug I can to the families of the hostages and to everyone in the whole State of Israel — this is for you.”
Shahin, 41, who is Druze, was working as a security guard for the Airports Authority at a Gaza border crossing in 2005 when several terrorists attacked the crossing, killing six Israelis and wounding him and four others. Milfelder, 26, was diagnosed with cancer as a teen and had to have a portion of her pelvis removed.
Meanwhile, rower Shmulik Daniel finished fourth overall in the men’s single sculls, just missing out on a spot on the podium. Daniel, 39, was wounded in 2005 with a spinal injury while serving in Har Dov along the northern border during his army service and has used a wheelchair ever since. He is one of three members of the Israeli delegation who were wounded during their IDF service.
The rowing medals represented the fourth and fifth so far for Israel at the Games, after a gold in taekwondo for Asaf Yasur on Thursday, gold in swimming on Friday from Ami Dadaon and bronze for Mark Malyar in swimming on Saturday.
Separately, shooter Yulia Chernoy finished 16th out of 35 competitors in the mixed 10m air rifle prone, failing to advance to the final. Chernoy, 44, who also represented Israel in Rio and Tokyo, will compete in the mixed 50m rifle prone later this week. The Kazakhstan native was born with cerebral palsy and moved to Israel in 2000.
Tennis player Sergei Lysov lost his second round match to the UK’s Alfie Hewett, finishing his individual run at the Paralympics. Lysov, 20, a native of Russia, moved to Israel as a teen and made his Paralympic debut in Paris.
And fellow tennis player Adam Berdichevsky also lost his match Sunday to Chile’s Alexander Cataldo, ending his individual medal hopes. Berdichevsky, who lost his leg in a boating accident in Thailand, is also a survivor of the October 7 Hamas attack on his home of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak.
Later Sunday, Lysov and Berdichevsky are slated to compete together against a French duo in the men’s doubles tournament.
Israel also has a shot at further medals in Paris on Sunday, with swimmers Malyar and Dadaon advancing earlier in the day to finals slated for the evening.
Amid the somber mood in Israel on Sunday, tragedy also hit the country’s delegation to the Paralympics. Shuki Levi, the father of boccia player Nadav Levi, who was accompanying his son to the Games, died of a heart attack overnight in France between Saturday and Sunday.
