Israel’s Country Profile
Official country name: State of Israel
Area: 8,090 sq miles (20,330 sq km), not including Syria’s Golan Heights (444 sq miles, 1,150 sq km), the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or East Jerusalem, which Israel occupies.
Population: 6.4 million (2007 est.), including 264,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, 20,000 in the Golan Heights, and 190,000 in East Jerusalem.
Median age: 21.4
Ethnic Groups: Jewish 76.4 percent. About 23.6 percent of Israel’s population is non-Jewish and mostly Palestinian Arab (not including the occupied territories).
GDP and GDP per capita: $142.1 billion and $20,139 (2006 estimates)
Read a complete country profile of Israel
Israel’s Olympic History
First time represented at Summer Olympics: 1952
Gold medals won: 1
Silver: 1
Bronze: 4
Athletes at the Beijing Olympics: 44
Number of Sports competing in at Beijing Olympics:11
Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics: 0
Israel’s Olympic Playbook
Israel’s place in the Olympics is sadly and inextricably bound to the worst two days in Olympic history by far: the massacre , at the 1972 summer games in Munich, of 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. It’s unfortunate that to this day Israeli athletes must contend with two realities: the constant fear of a repeat attack, and the constant mentions, by the media (this article being no different) of 1972. Israel’s Olymopic history, of course, is far richer.
Israel won its first gold in Athens in 2004 when wind surfer Gal Fridman clinched it in sailing. Sydney produced just a bronze in canoeing, but in Barcelona in 1992, Yael Arad won a silver and Shay Oren Smadga a bronze, both in judo.
In 2008, Israel is sending 44 athletes to compete in 11 sports. It’s the country’s largest-ever delegation, exceeding by four athletes the number Israel sent to Sydney in 2000. An athlete to watch: Ariel "Arik" Ze'evi, a judoka who won a bronze in Athens, and won the European championships in 2000, 2003, and 2004.
It’s a large contingent, but not a very famous one. “A poll published in late July,” a New York Times Olympics blogger noted , indicated that 76 percent of Israelis could not come up with the name of any Israeli competitor; 96 percent could not name any one of the new immigrants who make up a third of the athletes and almost half of the trainers going to Beijing. […]One of the stars of the campaign, Aleksandr Averbukh, 33, is billed on Ynet, the Web site of the most popular Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, as “Israel’s best athlete ever.” A pole vault champion who was born in Russia and became an Israeli citizen in 1999, Mr. Averbukh reached the pole vault finals at the Olympics in Sydney and Athens in 2000 and 2004 and won the European championship in 2002 and 2006. Four percent of Israelis said they had heard of him, according to the Absorption Ministry poll. ”
Israel’s Athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Canoe/Kayak
Michael Kolganov
Fencing
Delila Hatuel
Noam Mills
Tomer Or
Gymnastics
Olena Dvornichenko
Katerina Pisetsky
Irina Risenzon
Neta Rivkin
Maria Savenkov
Alexandr Shatilov
Rahel Vigchorchik
Veronika Vitenberg
Judo
Alice Schlesinger
Gal Yekutiel
Arik Zeevi
Sailing
Vered Bouskila
Maayan Davidovich
Nufar Edelman
Ehud Gal
Gideon Kliger
Nike Kornecki
Shahar Zubari
Shooting
Doron Egozi
Gil Simkovitch
Guy Zeev Starik
Swimming
Guy Marcos Barnea
Tom Beeri
Itai Chammah
Anna Gostomelsky
Max Jaben
Alon Mandel
Gal Nevo
Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or
Synchronized Swimming
Anastasia Gloushkov
Inna Yoffe
Taekwondo
Bat-El Gatterer
Tennis
Jonathan Erlich
Tzipora Obziler
Shahar Peer
Andy Ram
Track & Field/Athletics
Aleksandr Averbukh
Seteng Ayele
Itay Magidi
Nikita Palli
