Israeli athletes rack up medals, make history at worldwide competitions in ju-jitsu, MMA, windsurfing

The Israeli delegation won a total of 17 medals at an MMA competition in Serbia, hosted by the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

Israeli athletes have been winning medals around the world this month in various international competitions while the Olympics are underway in Milan, Italy.

Maya Day and Maya Behar both won gold medals at the JJIF Genoa Open Ju-Jitsu Grand Prix in Italy while at the iQFOiL International Games in Lanzarote, Spain, which concluded on Wednesday, Israeli windsurfer and Olympic medalist Sharon Kantor won the silver medal.

At the same time, 15-year-old Guy Pariente and Alon Avital both won gold medals in mixed martial arts at the IMMAF European Championship in Belgrade, Serbia.

Pariente took home gold in the under-16 –62kg division and competed against an Irish opponent in the finals.

His win marked the first time an Israeli has won gold at the European MMA Championships in any age category, according to i24News.

Pariente’s father Ido, president of the Israeli MMA Federation, presented the athlete with his gold medal while Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” was played for the first time ever in the history of the competition.

Avital took home gold in the under-18, –79kg category, where he went up against an Austrian opponent in the finals.

The Israeli delegation won a total of 17 medals at the competition in Serbia, hosted by the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation.

The winners included Uriel Barak, who took silver in the under-18 –70kg category; Yulia Schlesinger, who won silver in the –57kg category; Ori Zerbel, who secured a bronze medal in the under-18 –74kg division; and Tal Foris, who won bronze in the under-16 –48kg category.

Israeli athlete Jared Firestone competed in skeleton in the Milan Olympics on Thursday and after the second heat, he ranked 22nd. He will compete in the third leg of the competition on Friday.

Firestone, who is also a lawyer, is the second Israeli to ever compete in skeleton in the Olympics behind AJ Edelman, who is competing in the Olympics this year as the pilot of the Israeli bobsled team.

Also competing in the Olympics on Team Israel is Barnabas Szollos, who raced in alpine skiing in the Super-G event on Wednesday and ranked 33rd out of 42 participants, marking his second event in the Olympics following the downhill competition where he finished in 30th place out of 36 participants.