Since 1992, when Yael Arad and Oren Samadja won the first medals at the Olympic Games, judo has become a national sport in Israel. Thousands of children enrolled in judo circles, some of which moved from shelters to larger halls, the branch produced more and more athletes who represented Israel in competitions abroad, where they also achieved achievements that sound imaginary in other branches: world champions, European champions and ranked first in the world. Therefore, it is only natural On the first official day of the Olympic Games in Paris, considerable attention will be paid to the judo hall in the Champ de Mars, the gardens at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
The Israeli representatives on the first day were not exactly the seniors of the women’s and men’s teams, but their sports story symbolizes the two ends of the scale in the industry. On the one hand, the 33-year-old Shira Rini, in her third appearance at the Olympics; And on the other hand, 21-year-old Yam Volchek, who admits that “my very arrival here was an achievement, and not something that is taken for granted.”
The qualification of Rini for Paris is also not taken for granted. Although she qualified for the battle for bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Games and won bronze at the European Championships in 2022, she qualified for the Olympics from 17th place in the Olympic ranking in weight up to 48 kg, winning only four medals in the current Olympic cycle. Despite this, she says that “I got up With excitement, ready for a long day and to do something big. Unfortunately it didn’t happen, so the feelings are much harder now because my expectations of myself today are high.” The expectations met the reality that was revealed in the first round in the form of Abiba Abuzhkinova from Kazakhstan, ranked 3rd in the world. She initially managed to squeeze two penalties out of her and looked completely in the game, but after Two minutes of the fight was achieved by her opponent Vasari, and managed to keep the advantage until the end. “It’s a fight I should have won, you can’t embellish it,” she adds, “I felt good, that the fight was going in a good direction, but that’s how it is in judo. One second of a small mistake, one time, is enough for it to be over.”
In these moments, the thoughts of the loss in the battle for the bronze to Daria Bilodid three years ago in Tokyo also came back. “It’s the worst. Because I was almost,” explains Rini, “I didn’t come here to mark a third Olympics, that really wasn’t the story. After Tokyo I didn’t know if I would make another Olympics, and when I finished so close and I felt it inside, I said To myself, ‘No, you can’t finish like this, you have to give it another step.’
Volchek, who surprised the industry when he entered the battle for a medal at the world championships at the end of 2022 and finished in fifth place, has so far won a total of one medal in his career on the senior world tour (silver at the Tbilisi Grand Slam this year), and qualified for Paris from 16th place in the Olympic ranking up to 60 kg “C (out of 18 assignments). “I had no expectations for this competition,” he added, “I arrived here when I was barely 21 years old.”
Wolczek beat Arnold Kiowaka of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ranked 66th in the world, in the first round, but lost in the round of 16 to Giorgi Sardalashvili of Georgia, the reigning world champion and ranked 2nd in the world. An illegal move made by Volchak, whose coach Golan Polak and the judoka himself did not understand the meaning of the decision, caused his disqualification and an automatic loss. “Obviously I did everything to get a medal, and I’m proud of how I fought,” said Volchek, with it clear that the future is still ahead of him, and will surely include fights against younger judokas in the lower weights for the tickets to Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.
While Volchek will certainly remain with hopes for the future, initially, by virtue of her position as a veteran of the male and female athletes in the judo team, she gave a historical perspective to the progress of the branch – especially for women. “Me and Shani (Hershko, the national team coach – AR) have been going together since 2010,” she recalls the process that began almost a decade and a half ago, “before Rio (2016) there was one athlete in each Olympics – and today we are seven. What Shani did, and what his team did and where he took the team from where it was, I think actions speak louder than words. I think the results of our team, almost all of whom won a medal either at the European Championships or the World Championships or both, is something that has never happened and I only see a trend of progress and it’s amazing, it’s amazing that I’m a part of it.”
Therefore, Rini says that after I “wash this day off of me”, as she defines it, she will return to the hall to encourage her friends and her teammates in the following days, such as Gefen Primo (up to 52 kg) and Baruch Shamailov (up to 66 kg), who will compete Tomorrow – as well as in the team competition next Saturday, in which she may take part: “First of all we have seven days of competition, I am here for my team and I am part of a team and I will support each and every one of them”.
Rini may have finally entered Israel’s long list of Olympic Games finalists today, but even in this difficult moment she managed to provide an important insight. “Even in Tokyo, when I finished fifth, I supported each of the girls, and it won’t be any different now,” she explains, as she tries to digest the meaning of the elimination and its effects, “I hope that this day will be one miss and from here our team will rise. I will do everything for my friends to succeed And I will do everything for my team to succeed.”
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