On Thursday, August 1, the Israeli delegation took its first two medals to the Olympic Village: Inbar Lanir and Peter Paltchik stood out by winning silver and bronze medals in the judo competition of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
Paltchik, 32, secured bronze by defeating Switzerland's Daniel Eich in the men's under 100kg category.
Before, he had beaten judokas from Mongolia and France, lost against Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan in the quarterfinals and beat Michael Korrel of the Netherlands to secure his medal.
Lanir, 24, reached the final after beating Otgonbayaryn Khüslen of Mongolia, Guusje Steenhuis of the Netherlands and Anna-Maria Wagner of Germany, among others.
She lost the final against the Italian Alice Bellandi, thus winning the silver medal in the women's under 78 kg category.
After the award ceremony, Lanir expressed that she was very happy: “It's a little difficult to be happy after losing in the final because I always want to beat everyone, but I'm really happy. “Having the privilege of giving a little happy news during these times is worth everything to me.”
For his part, Paltchik emotionally stated that he could not explain in words what he was feeling: “The period we are going through in the country, the war, the wounds, the people we will not see again, I just wanted to make everyone happy. “I fought for everyone, for our flag, we worked so hard for this moment.”
In the next few hours, other competitions will take place in which the delegation could win a new medal: the sailing races of Sharon Kantor and Tom Reuveny and the participation of Raz Hershko in judo.