By Alexander Smith
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – Winning gold for Israel in the men’s windsurfing means far more than Olympic glory because of the war in Gaza, Israel’s Tom Reuveny said after his victory on Saturday.
“My brother has been a combat soldier since the war began … it’s much bigger than me to win this event and it feels amazing,” Reuveny told Reuters after coming ashore.
Reuveny’s gold followed a silver for his team mate Sharon Kantor, 21, in the women’s windsurfing, with the pair delivering Israel’s best Olympic sailing medals result.
“We are in a tough year and a tough position … in this situation to represent Israel is a big honour for everyone and we all understand our roles: to give a bit of joy,” said Eli Zuckerman, head coach of Israel’s Olympic sailing team.
“I’m very happy that we succeeded,” he told Reuters, adding: “I think the athletes are also very happy and very proud to do it while our country is in such a complicated situation”.
Reuveny, 24, said he felt all of Israel was behind him in the run up to the Games, which had helped him through. He thanked everyone for the many messages of support.
“It was so hard to go training while everyone else was crying over lost people, dead people. It’s been so hard and I still had to put my head down and keep training and its all for this moment,” said the visibly emotional sailor.
Israel’s sailing coach said the team, which is represented in a record seven of the 10 Olympic sailing events in 2024, had felt a clear sense purpose because of the expectations on them.
“It’s not only (that) we go surfing or we go sailing, we are representing Israel and we’ll do whatever we can to bring the biggest honour,” Zuckerman said.
“A lot of people said: ‘we’ll see you in TV (Tel Aviv) and it’s making us happy, it’s amazing, it’s amazing’. If we are not taking it in this perspective, you cannot continue training, because you say then: ‘what are we doing?'” he added.
“When you understand it, we get it from a lot of people and it is giving us a lot of power,” the head coach said, adding: ” On the other hand I would be very happy if we did not need this and the situation would be like any other country”.
Israel had previously achieved a total of three medals in windsurfing, Zuckerman said, all won by the coaches to its sailors in Marseille. Reuveny’s coach won Israel’s first gold in Athens in 2004 and Kantor’s got bronze in 2008.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Alison Williams)
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