Yael Arad
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
 Yael Arad in 2009 |
||
Competitor for  Israel |
||
| Women's Judo | ||
| Silver | 1992 Barcelona | Half Middleweight[1] |
Yael Arad (Hebrew: יעל ארד) (born May 1, 1967) is an Israeli judoka.
She was the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal.[2] She is widely recognized as one of Israel's most successful athletes and is credited with bringing judo into the athletic mainstream.
In 2005, she was voted the 103rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.[3]
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[edit] Biography
Yael Arad, who is Jewish,[4] was born in Tel Aviv. She started taking judo classes at the age of eight and within half a year, ranked second in Israel in her weight class.[5] Later, lacking judo partners, she trained with the coach of the men's team.[6] In 1995, Arad married Lior Kahane.[5]
[edit] International judo career
In 1984, at the age of 17, Arad won her first international title in a middleweight competition.[6] She came in 7th in the world judo championships in Vienna. In 1989, 1990 and 1991, she won medals in the European championships.[7] To hone her skills, she underwent training in Japan.[6]
In 1992, at the Olympic games in Barcelona, Arad became the first Israeli athlete to win an Olympic medal. She narrowly missed the gold based on a judge's decision in the half middleweight competition, but won the silver medal.[8] She lost to Catherine Fleury of France. Arad dedicated the medal to the victims of the 1972 Munich Massacre.[9]
In 1993, she won a gold medal in the European championships. In the world championships that year, she lost in the finals to Gella van de Caveye of Belgium, taking home a silver medal.[7]
She was chosen to light the torch at the 1993 Maccabiah Games.[10] She finished in second place at the 1993 World and European Championships and fifth at the 1995 World Championships.
At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Arad lost to Jung Sung-Sook of Korea, competing for the bronze.[5] She went into the fight sick with a virus and ended up in fifth place.[11]
She served as judo coach for Israel in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
[edit] Olympic medal
After winning her Olympic medal, Arad wrote:
Thursday, July 30, 1992. A fateful day, a watershed day, a day of fame, a day of self-fulfillment. A day that required fifteen years of hard work, endless investment and hidden self-confidence. The day I won the Olympic silver medal. My medal. The first medal of the State of Israel. … I went onto the mat like a stormy wind, after a warm-up that drove from my body all the little demons that threatened to defeat me even before it all began. The first match was against a woman from Spain who had already defeated me twice in the past, but it was clear to me that this time she had no chance. I went off after four minutes, the winner. The second match was against a woman from the Czech Republic. We knew each other well and we both knew I was better. The victory over her contributed a bit more to building confidence for the tough and significant match of the day. Four minutes were all that stood between myself and my life’s dream. … When the match started, the semi-finals, I was there with all my battle gear. And suddenly, it was all over. I had won. … Emotionally it was the highest moment of my life and despite my losing later in the finals the victory in the semi-finals against the woman from Germany was the sweetest of all. That day I changed from a person who wanted to a person who could. And that made all the difference.[7]
[edit] Retirement
After retiring from the sport, Arad continued with judo as a coach and sports entrepreneur. Today she holds a key management position in a children's product company and serves as a TV commentator at judo competitions.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Yael Arad Olympic medals and stats". Databaseolympics.com. January 5, 1967. http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=ARADYAE01. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ "Yael Arad – biography". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/YaelArad.html. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ גיא בניוביץ' (June 20, 1995). "הישראלי מספר 1: יצחק רבין – תרבות ובידור". Ynet. http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3083171,00.html. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c "Medal is lost, but mourning ends for Israel". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mdkb1Kc4DgIJ:articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-07-24/news/9607240076_1_yael-arad-israeli-flag-gold+1996+yael+arad+sung+sook&cd=30&hl=en&ct=clnk. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ a b c Arfa, Orit. "Sporting heroes for 60 years". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/home/article.aspx?id=99845. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Sport: Yishuv to the Present". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w7it-WzpO4UJ:jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/sport-yishuv-to-present+yael+arad+management&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ "Israel Speakers Center, Yael Arad". Hamartzim.co.il. http://www.hamartzim.co.il/lec-inside-eng.asp?id=257. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ ".". Jews in Sports. http://www.jewsinsports.org/. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ "Maccabiah 18". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7Kt5w6O0NRIJ:www.maccabiah.com/ntext.asp%3Fpsn%3D5014+yael+arad+athletic+mainstream&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ^ "Yael and Oren are still heroes". Jerusalem Post. http://info.jpost.com/1998/Supplements/Olymp/onews_main_8.html. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
[edit] Further reading
- Women of Valor: Stories of Great Jewish Women Who Helped Shape the 20th Century, Sheila Segal, Behrman House, Inc, 1996, ISBN 0874416124, pp. 123–26
