Israeli swimmers win 2 more golds at Tokyo Paralympics, bringing total medal count to 9
Iyad Shalabi reacts during a medal ceremony at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre at the 2020 Paralympics, Sept. 2, 2021. By Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
(JTA) — Israeli swimmers Iyad Shalabi and Ami Dadaon each won gold medals at the Paralympics on Thursday, adding to Israel’s historic medal showing.
So far, Israel has won nine medals — six of which are gold, and eight of which come from swimming events.
On the first day of competition, Shalabi had already made history by becoming the first Arab-Israeli athlete to medal in the Olympics or Paralympics. His second gold medal came on day nine in the men’s 50-meter backstroke S1 category. Shalabi was born deaf to a Muslim family in Shfar’am, in northern Israel, and this is his fourth Paralympics.
Dadaon won his third medal on day nine, winning gold in the men’s 50-meter freestyle S4 category, and set a new Paralympic record in the process. He had already won gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle S4 category and silver in the men’s 150-meter individual medley SM4 category.
Israel’s two other swimming golds were won by Mark Malyar. Before this year’s Paralympics, Israel had not won a gold medal in Paralympic swimming.
—
The post Israeli swimmers win 2 more golds at Tokyo Paralympics, bringing total medal count to 9 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
