Israel (ISR)

The formation of the state of Israel as an independent Jewish state occurred on 15 May 1948. Israel dates its National Olympic Committee (NOC) to 1933, but that was a Palestine organization, and not truly a precursor of the current NOC. The original Palestine Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 17 May 1934 at the IOC session in Athens, and was to represent Jews, Muslims, and Christians from the Palestine region. However, the rules of the original Palestine NOC stated, “Palestine is the National Home of the Jews, and so the Palestine NOC represents the Jewish National Home.” Given that manifesto, the Palestine NOC refused to compete at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, in protest of Adolf Hitler’s policies. After World War II, the 1948 London Organizing Committee originally invited the Palestine NOC but later withdrew the invitation. The problem of the status of the Palestine Olympic Committee was solved in 1951 when the Israel Olympic Committee was formed.

Israel competed at its first Olympics in 1952 at Helsinki, the same year in which its National Olympic Committee was formally recognized by the IOC. Israel has missed only the 1980 Moscow Olympics since 1952. Israel made its first Olympic Winter Games appearance in 1994 and has competed at every Winter Olympics since. The zenith of Israel participation came in 1992 when two Israeli judoka won the nation’s first medals. The nadir occurred at München on 5 September 1972 when Arab terrorists savagely and cowardly murdered 11 Israeli athletes and officials: (David Berger, Ze’ev Friedman, Yossef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Romano, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer, and Moshe Weinberg). Through 2012, Israel has won nine Olympic medals – three in judo, five in sailing, and one in canoeing. Israel’s top Olympian has been sailor Gal Fridman, who has won two medals, and Israel’s only gold to date, in 2004 men’s windsurfing.