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September 3, 2004/Elul 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 50
Israelis celebrate, fret after Olympics
DINA KRAFT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
TEL AVIV - Doused with champagne and confetti and greeted with loudspeakers blasting "We Are the Cham-pions," the Israeli Olympic team received a hero's wel-come home.
The celebrations at Ben-Gurion Airport on Aug. 30 capped an emotional two weeks of Israeli attention focused across the Medi-terranean toward the Games in Athens. Any disappointments were overshadowed by the triumph of Gal Fridman's gold in windsurfing and Arik Ze'evi's bronze in judo.
"I am honored to be the first Israeli athlete to bring home an Olym-pic gold, and I hope there will be many more to follow," Fridman told the roaring crowd. "Remem-ber, there is no such thing as impossible. It's wonderful that the gold medal made everyone so happy."
The Israelis' triumphs were only two of more than a dozen medals won by Jewish athletes at the Games, including two golds earned by Chile's Nicolas Massu in tennis and several more medals by U.S. Jewish swimmers.
But athletes winning medals wasn't the only Jewish story at the Games. An Iranian athlete, Arash Miresmaeli, made inter-national headlines after he refused to fight an Israeli competitor, Ehud Vaks, in judo.
But in Israel, a country hungry for good news, the medals were the main story from this year's Games.
Newspapers published commemorative posters of Fridman, a victory laurel on his head, kissing his gold medal. Billboards were posted over major roads saying "Gal Fridman, You Made the Country Proud" and rabbis spoke of Frid-man in their Shabbat sermons.
Ze'evi won the bronze in the under 100-kg category. His face is now also seen plastered in advertising posters across the country, as Israeli companies scramble to use these new Israeli sports heroes to sell their products.
Upon his return to Israel, Ze'evi said Fridman's gold should motivate younger Israelis to push Israeli sports further ahead. He said more corporations should get involved in helping sponsor athletes, not only in the country's favorite sports like soccer and basketball.
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