The Israeli delegation won four gold medals, one silver medal and three bronze medals.
The Israeli delegation took 8 medals at the biennial European Youth Olympic Festival in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia last week.
This year, Israel sent athletes from a variety of disciplines to the competition, including Judo, swimming, athletics, cycling and more.
“We are very proud of our athletes and the entire team and staff for representing the State of Israel in such an honorable way. Now the real difficulty is to give these athletes the tools and the platform to develop and become mature Olympic athletes,” said Tair Talmon the head of the Israeli delegation.
It was a very successful tournament for the Israeli team that returned with 8 medals including 4 gold in 4 different sports; 15-year-old Okan Goldin won gold in the 100-meter backstroke, Noam Mamu won the 400-meter race, Dima Dutsenko won the high bar exercise and Kerem Primo won in judo (under 63 kg).
“There are no easy gold medals, I’m proud of Kerem.”
Shani Hershko, Primo’s coach
“There are no easy gold medals, I’m proud of Kerem,” said Shani Hershko, Primo’s coach.
In addition to the gold medals, the Israeli delegation won another 4 medals, one silver and three bronze, all in judo.
One of the bronze medals won by the delegation was in the mixed team judo competition this one is reminiscent of the victory of the adult judo team in the Tokyo Olympics, when the team took home a bronze medal against the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the mixed-team judo tournament.
“20 women and 24 men athletes competed in 7 disciplines. This is without a doubt the highest quality delegation that we had in terms of the number of medals, the quality of the delegation,” Gili Lustig, CEO of the Israel Olympic Committee posted on Facebook.
The European Youth Olympics
Both the summer and winter European Youth Olympics are held under the patronage of the International and European Olympic Committees and are meant to be the first big stage sporting event for athletes aged 14 to 18. The competition started on July 24 and ended on Saturday, July 30.
Some 3,600 young athletes and officials from 50 Olympic committees participate in the summer games, according to the European Youth Olympics Festival website.