| Israel at the Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IOC code | ISR |
| NOC | Olympic Committee of Israel |
| Website | www |
| Medals Ranked 73rd |
|
| Summer appearances | |
| Winter appearances | |
Israel has competed at theOlympic Games as a nation since 1952. ItsNational Olympic Committee was formed in 1933, during theBritish Mandate of Palestine.[1]Israel has sent a team to eachSummer Olympic Games since 1952 (except when it participated in theAmerican-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics), and to eachWinter Olympic Games since 1994. Israel became a member of theEuropean Olympic Committees (EOC) in 1994. At the2024 Summer Olympics, Israel won seven Olympic medals, the most up until this point, breaking Israel's record for Olympic medals per Olympics.
Medals by Summer Games[edit]
| Medals by Winter Games[edit]
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| Sports |  Gold |  Silver |  Bronze | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gymnastics | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 30 |
 Sailing | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 22 |
 Judo | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 39 |
 Canoeing | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 42 |
 Taekwondo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 39 |
| Total | 4 | 6 | 10 | 20 | 73 |
In 1933 thePalestine National Olympic Committee was officially formed, and was recognized by theInternational Olympic Committee in May 1934.[14] It never competed as the 1936 games were held in Nazi Germany and were boycotted by this Jewish Olympic committee, while the 1940 and 1944 games were cancelled due to World War II.[1] Although the Palestine National committee represented Muslims, Jews, and Christians living in British-ruledMandatory Palestine, its rules stated that they "represent[ed] theJewish National Home."[1] In 1948, shortly after the State of Israel was established, its request to participate in the1948 Olympics (symbolically represented byRaya Bronstein andFrieda Berson-Lichtblau [he][15]) was denied, as Mandatory Palestine had ceased to exist and the newly formed State of Israel wasn't yet recognized by IOC.[16] In 1951 the National Olympic Committee was re-organized and changed the name to the Olympic Committee of Israel, and was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1952.
Israel was previously part of theAsian Games Federation until it was disbanded in 1981. In 1982 instead of joining the newOlympic Council of Asia, Israel opted to join theEuropean Olympic Committees.[17]
Israel won its first Olympic medal in its tenth Olympic appearance, in1992, inJudo whenYael Arad won a silver medal.[2] She was followed a day later by anotherjudoka,Oren Smadja, who won bronze.[3] Since then, Israel won a bronze medal in five successive Summer Olympics until the streak ended in 2012. Additionally, in2004,Gal Fridman became Israel's first gold medallist, in men's windsurfing.[4] This was his second medal, following his bronze in1996,[4] and he became the first individual multi-medallist, followed in 2024 by Artem Dolgopyat. Israel also won 2 bronze medals in2016. In the postponed2020 Games Israel received 2 gold medals, won byArtem Dolgopyat in men's gymnastics (floor routine), andLinoy Ashram in women's rhythmic gymnastics (individual all-around), and 2 bronze medals, one won byAvishag Semberg intaekwondo, and 1 won by thejudo Mixed team. As a member of theIsrael national judo Mixed team,Ori Sasson became Israel's second multi-medalist, while the latter bronze one is a shared one. Through 2022, Israel has not won any medals in the Winter Olympics.
Ágnes Keleti, who immigrated to Israel in 1957, holds more medals than any other Israeli citizen. During the1952 and1956 Summer Olympics Ágnes won 10 medals competing forHungary at the Olympics.[18] The only Jew to hold more medals than Keleti is American swimmerMark Spitz, who won 11.[19]
Israel has beenmore successful at theParalympic Games than at the Olympics, with 375 medals between 1960 and 2016.[20]
Eleven members of theIsraeli Olympic team were murdered by theBlack September Organization during theMunich massacre.[21] 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 the2016 Summer Olympics, theInternational Olympic Committee officially honored the Israelis killed for the first time.[22] They were also honored during the Opening Ceremonies of the2020 Summer Olympics.
Israel was one of the countries thatboycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest at theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan, but also because ofSoviet opposition to Israel andZionism.[23]
An Iranian judoka,Arash Miresmaeili, did not compete in a match against IsraeliEhud Vaks during the2004 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. TheInternational 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.[24]
Saudi Arabian judoka,Joud Fahmy, forfeited her match in the2016 Summer Olympics possibly in order to avoid competing against IsraeliGili Cohen.[25] Later in the 2016 Summer Olympics, IsraeliOr Sasson defeated Egyptian judokaIslam El Shahaby in the first round, after the match ended, Sasson tried to shake his opponent's hand, but El Shahaby refused.[26]
Prior to the 2016 opening ceremony, theLebanese delegation was assigned to ride on the same bus as the Israeli delegation.[27] 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?"[28]
Algerian JudokaMessaoud Dris missed weight in order to avoid facing Israeli judokaTohar Butbul, leading to an investigation by the IOC.[29]
Nurali Emomali ofTajikistan, as well asAbderrahmane Boushita from Morocco, refused the courtesy hand shake with their Israeli opponent, judokaBaruch Shmailov, following their matches,[30] with Emomali reportedly yelling Allāhu ʾakbar.[31]
| Sport | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | 1964 | 1968 | 1972 | 1976 | 1984 | 1988 | 1992 | 1996 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archery | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Athletics | 7 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 85 | |
| Badminton | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| Baseball | 24 | 24 | |||||||||||||||||
| Basketball | 13 | 13 | |||||||||||||||||
| Boxing | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||||||
| Canoeing/Kayaking | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 11 | |||||||||||||
| Cycling | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 10 | ||||||||||||||
| Diving | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Equestrian | 4 | 4 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fencing | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 19 | ||||||||
| Football | 19 | 17 | 19 | 55 | |||||||||||||||
| Golf | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 59 | ||||||
| Judo | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 62 | |||||||
| Sailing | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 67 | |||||
| Shooting | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 35 | ||
| Surfing | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Swimming | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 18 | 101 |
| Synchronized swimming | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||||||||||||||
| Table tennis | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Taekwondo | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||||||
| Tennis | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Triathlon | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||||||
| Weightlifting | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||||||||||
| Wrestling | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 18 | ||||||||||
| Total | 26 | 3 | 23 | 10 | 31 | 15 | 27 | 37 | 19 | 31 | 25 | 41 | 35 | 43 | 37 | 47 | 90 | 88 | 628 |
| Sport | 1994 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 | 2010 | 2014 | 2018 | 2022 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Skiing | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |||
| Figure Skating | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 27 |
| Short Track Speed Skating | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| Skeleton | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Total | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 38 |
| |
Gold medalists | |
|---|---|
Silver medalists |
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Bronze medalists | |
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