Israel at the Olympics

Israel won its first Olympic medal in its tenth Olympic appearance, in 1992, in Judo when Yael Arad won a silver medal.[4] She was followed a day later by another judoka, Oren Smadja, who won bronze.[5] Since then, Israel won a bronze medal in five successive Summer Olympics until the streak ended in 2012. Additionally, in 2004, Gal Fridman became Israel's first and only gold medallist, in men's windsurfing.[6] This was his second medal, following his bronze in 1996,[6] and he is the only multi-medallist. Israel also won 2 bronze medals in 2016. Through 2014, Israel had not won any medals in the Winter Olympics.

Ágnes Keleti, who emigrated to Israel in 1957, holds more medals than any other Israeli citizen. During the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics Ágnes won 10 medals competing for Hungary at the Olympics.[7] The only Jew to hold more medals than Keleti is American swimmer Mark Spitz, who won 11.[8]

Israel has been more successful at the Paralympic Games than at the Olympics, with 375 medals between 1960 and 2016.[9]

Individual Jewish athletes from a number of countries chose to boycott the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. In the United States, the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee supported a boycott.[10] The JLC organized the World Labor Athletic Carnival, held on August 15 and 16 at New York’s Randall’s Island, to protest the holding of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.[11]

Eleven members of Israel's 1972 Olympic team were murdered during the Munich massacre:[12] The tragedy caused the Israeli delegation to withdraw from the remainder of the Games.

The murdered people were:

On 3 August 2016, two days prior to the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee officially honored the Israelis killed for the first time.[13]

Israel was one of the countries that boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but also because of Soviet anti-semitic and anti-Israel policies.[14]

Israeli judoka Ori Sasson

An Iranian judoka, Arash Miresmaeili, did not compete in a match against Israeli Ehud Vaks during the 2004 Summer Olympics, due to the government of Iran having taken steps to avoid any competition between its athletes and those from Israel. He was officially disqualified for being overweight, however Miresmaeli was awarded US$125,000 in prize money by the Iranian government, an amount paid to all Iranian gold medal winners. The International Judo Federation conducted an investigation to see if he intentionally came in overweight in order to miss the bout. He was officially cleared of intentionally avoiding the bout, but his receipt of the prize money raised suspicion.[15] Saudi Arabian judoka, Joud Fahmy, forfeited her match in the 2016 Summer Olympics in order to avoid competing against Gili Cohen.[16] Later in the 2016 Summer Olympics, Israeli Or Sasson defeated Egyptian judoka Islam El Shahaby in the first round, after the match ended, Sasson tried to shake his opponent's hand, but El Shahaby refused.[17]

Prior to the 2016 opening ceremony, the Lebanese delegation was assigned to ride on the same bus as the Israeli delegation.[18] The head of the Lebanese team, Salim al-Haj Nicolas, admitted that he demanded that the bus door be closed on the Israeli team, and that the Lebanese demanded that the Israeli athletes not board the bus. Udi Gal, an Israeli Olympic sailor, said his team ultimately decided to travel separately to avoid an "international and physical incident" but added "How could they let this happen on the eve of the Olympic Games? Isn't this the opposite of what the Olympics represents?"[19]