Israeli Judokas Win Israel’s First Two Medals at Paris Olympic Games

Israeli judokas Peter Paltchik and Inbar Lanir won on Thursday the first two medals for their country in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Paltchik — who was also a flag bearer for Israel during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic — beat Daniel Eich of Switzerland in the men’s under 100-kg category and took home the bronze medal. The Ukrainian-born Israeli judoka, 32, got extremely emotional after the bout when he hugged his coach Shay Oren Smadga, whose 25-year-old son, Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Omer Smadga, was killed from mortar fire while fighting in June with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip. Oren celebrated his 54th birthday just one day before the IDF announced that Omer was killed.

Paltchik told Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster that his bronze medal win on Thursday was dedicated to Omer. Oren, who won a bronze medal in judo at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, later talked about being in Paris and coaching the Israeli judo team following his son’s recent death.

“It was very important for me to be here, to bring the spirit to the athletes, because we worked every day for four years for this moment,” he said, according to Reuters. “We are proud of our country. We love our country. We want to win the war because what happened on Oct. 7 is very sad; I think the people in the world did not understand it.”

Also on Thursday, Lanir won the silver medal in the finals of the women’s under 78-kg category. The 24-year-old came in second place after Alice Bellandi of Italy. Lanir’s win is Israel’s second Olympic silver medal in the history of the country.

“I’m so, so happy right now,” she told Israel’s Sport5 just minutes after winning the silver medal. “It’s a bit hard to be happy after losing in the final because I always want to beat everyone, but I’m really happy. The fact that I have the privilege to give a little happy news during this time is worth everything to me.”

More than half of Israel’s total Olympic medals have been in judo. The first was a bronze medal won by Yael Arad, the current president of the Israeli Olympic Committee, at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.