Slow and steady gold

August 1, 2008 - 8:38 AM by Harry

Despite the numerous European championships won by Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israelis aren’t exactly known for their athletic accomplishments. At the most recent summer Olympic games in Athens four years ago, windsurfer Gal Fridman won Israel his first gold medal after 52 years of attempts.

The Beijing games are set to kick off in a matter of days now, and we’re dead set on picking our battles. One blogger astutely points out that we dominated the celebrations at July’s Mathematics Olympics in Madrid.

And we can always look back fondly at the accomplishments of the Ramat Gan Safari’s Tortoise Olympics, where a new world Sudanese giant tortoise speed record of one kilometer per hour was set, triggering wild celebrations involving flowered wreaths and enthusiastic monkeys.

The old parable about the tortoise and the hare earns added poignancy in this context. And besides, let’s not forget that Israel is a place that has much love for turtles, operating a very special sanctuary dedicated to the creatures in Michmoret – just a few hours by turtleback from Gal Fridman’s hometown of Hadera.

Tags: , , , , , , , , • Category: Sports 

Comments

2 Comments on Slow and steady gold

  1. David-Joe on Fri, Aug 1st 2008 12:00 PM

    2. Israel may not be known for sporting achievements but consider that the Jewish people were scattered from their homeland.

    There have been JEWISH achievements and amongst them the most successful Olympic swimmer ever, Mark Spitz, world champion racing driver in 1979 driving for Ferrari, South African Jody Scheckter and so on :-]

  2. Israelity » Spiritual kicks in Beijing on Fri, Aug 8th 2008 12:58 PM

    3. [...] Israel’s chances for gold at the Beijing Olympic games, which kicks off tonight with a lavish ceremony, aren’t anything to get riled up about, with many preferring to ponder our nation’s superiority in fields other than human athletics. [...]

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