Israel captures 7th Olympic medal as rhythmic gymnastics team wins silver

The team scored 68.850 behind China, which scored 69.800, winning the gold.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israel secured a record 7th medal in the Paris 2024 Olympics as its rhythmic gymnastics team won a silver medal on Saturday.

Despite placing 6th in the qualifying round, Israel’s team performed brilliantly in the mixed category, which earned them silver.

The team scored 68.850 behind China, which scored 69.800, winning the gold.

The rhythmic gymnastics team’s strong showing earned Israel its seventh medal, the most since it won four in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. This brings the Jewish State’s total Olympic medal count to 20.

The team members, Shani Bakanov, 18, Adar Friedmann, 18, Romi Paritzki, 20, Ofir Shaham, 19, and Diana Svertsov, 19, commented on their stellar win to Channel 5 news.

The team was ecstatic to win silver after the disappointing sixth place on Friday and initially scoring only 5th in the hoops category on Saturday due to its low difficulty level.

On Friday, Romi Paritzki told the team not to lose heart, “We’re ready for tomorrow, we’ll show up renewed, focused, will give it our all… Tomorrow we’ll come even more ready.”

After placing only 5th in the hoops round Paritzki said the team was still determined and “fought to the end” with a strong finish in the mixed category.

“We had such a great time,” she said, adding that “the crowd was fantastic.”

The team also noticed many Israeli flags waved by audience members.

Paritzki said her team was “so proud to represent the state and to lift it; we’re a strong people.”

She added, “We’re like a family,” she said of the team. “We have crises, we have to compromise… but we were so together and it was worth every second.”

In their second round that clinched victory, Israel was the last of eight teams to perform and Shaham praised the “wonderful team” of coaches that helped them focus on victory.

Svertsov said waiting to find out their scores was “incredibly emotional” and said that victory was only possible because “we work well together…because we can only win together.”

Bakanov said although the team had sacrificed for many years, “Now we can make up for it.”

Friedman commented that winning the silver was “the best thing that’s happened in our lives.”