Israel competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's sixteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics. The Olympic Committee of Israel confirmed a team of 47 athletes, 22 men and 25 women, to compete across 17 sports at the Games. Breaking its previous record of 43 athletes set in 2008, it was the nation's largest ever delegation sent to the Olympics, until the record was again broken by the 90 athletes delegation to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Among the sports represented by its athletes, Israel marked its Olympic debut in golf (new to the 2016 Games), mountain biking, and triathlon, as well as its return to road cycling, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling after long years of absence. The nation's full roster also reached a historic milestone for Israeli women, as they officially outnumbered the men for the first time.
The Israeli delegation featured 14 returning Olympians. Five of them participated in their third straight Games, namely windsurfer and 2008 bronze medalist Shahar Tzuberi, butterfly and medley swimmer Gal Nevo, synchronized swimmer Anastasia Gloushkov, artistic gymnast Alexander Shatilov, and rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin, who was chosen as the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, the first by a female since 1996 and fourth overall in Israel's Olympic history.
Israel returned home from Rio de Janeiro with two bronze medals, each won by judoka Yarden Gerbi (women's 63 kg) and Or Sasson (men's +100 kg), an improvement from the nation's out-of-medal feat at London 2012. Several Israeli athletes advanced to the finals of their respective sporting events, but narrowly missed out of the podium, including the women's rhythmic gymnastics squad (captained by Alona Koshevatskiy) in the group all-around, triple jumper Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko, and windsurfer Maayan Davidovich in the women's RS:X.
Background Israel participated in 16 Summer Olympics between its debut at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The nation chose rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin as its flagbearer in the opening ceremony and rhythmic gymnastics squad captain Alona Koshevatskiy as its flagbearer in the closing ceremony. A total of 47 athletes, 22 men and 25 women, travelled to Rio de Janeiro and competed across 17 sports. It was the nation's largest ever delegation sent to the Olympics, breaking its previous record of 43 athletes set in 2008. Among the sports represented by its athletes, Israel marked its Olympic debut in golf (new to the 2016 Games), mountain biking, and triathlon, as well as its return to road cycling, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling after long years of absence. The nation's full roster also reached a historic milestone on the Israeli women, as they officially outnumbered the men for the first time. Israel has won a total of nine medals up to and including .
Medalists
Medal Name Sport Event Date Judo Women's 63 kg Judo Men's +100 kg
Competitors The Israeli delegation included 47 athletes competing in 17 sports. SportMenWomenTotalAthletics 5 3 8Badminton 1 0 1Cycling 1 1 2Golf 0 1 1Gymnastics 1 6 7Judo 3 4 7Sailing 3 3 6Shooting 1 0 1Swimming 3 4 7Synchronized swimming 0 2 2Taekwondo 1 0 1Tennis 1 0 1Triathlon 1 0 1Weightlifting 1 0 1Wrestling 0 1 1 Total 22 25 47
Athletics
Donald Sanford qualified for the men's 400 metres by having a qualifying time of under 45.40 seconds. Sanford finished in his heat with a time of 46.06 seconds, but did not qualify for the semifinals due to finishing in fifth place.
Israel had five marathon runners qualify, three males and two females. They all qualified via the entry standard of 2:19 and 2:45 for men and women, respectively. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter did not finish the marathon. The highest place finish was by Marhu Teferi, finishing in 74th place.
Both Dmitry Kroyter and Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko competed in field events, with the former competing in high jump and the latter in triple jump. Kroyter did not perform well enough to advance to the final round; he cleared the height on his second try, but failed to clear the height in his three attempts, finishing 41st overall.
Minenko scratched on her first two jumps, and her third jump was long enough for her to place 8th in the round with a distance of . The final round is split into two sets of three jumps, with the top eight from the first set advancing to the second. The longest distance from all six jumps is the distance that is considered for placing. Minenko placed seventh in the first set, with her longest jump from the set being . Minenko achieved her season best in the second set of jumps with a length of , finishing in fifth place overall.
Track & road events AthleteEventHeatSemifinalFinalResultRankResultRankResultRankDonald SanfordMen's 400 m46.065Did not advanceAgeze GuadieMen's marathoncolspan=4 2:30:45122Tesama Moogascolspan=4 2:30:30121Marhu Tefericolspan=4 2:21:0674Lonah Chemtai SalpeterWomen's marathoncolspan=4 Maor Tiyouricolspan=4 2:47:2790
Field events AthleteEventQualificationFinalDistancePositionDistancePositionDmitry KroyterMen's high jump2.1741did not advanceHanna Knyazyeva-MinenkoWomen's triple jump14.20 8 q14.685
Badminton
Israel qualified one badminton player for the men's singles into the Olympic tournament. Misha Zilberman, who debuted at the London 2012 Olympic Games as Israel's first badminton Olympian, claimed his Olympic spot as one of the top 34 individual shuttlers in the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016. According to Zilberman, his ambition is "to win a medal at the European or World Championships or the Olympic Games." When it comes to his Olympic training regimen, he said "training under my parents is hard because on the court, they are always trying to push me to my limit." Zilberman's win was Israel's first badminton win at the Olympics. He lost to Chou Tien-chen, and Chou's victory over Yuhan Tan eliminated Zilberman from competition.
AthleteEventGroup StageEliminationQuarterfinalSemifinalFinal / OppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankMisha ZilbermanMen's singlesL (9–21, 11–21)W (22–20, 21–12)2did not advance
Cycling
Road Israel qualified one rider in the women's Olympic road race, Shani Bloch, by virtue of a top-22 international finish in the 2016 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Rankings, signifying the nation's Olympic comeback to the sport for the first time since 1960. Bloch had retired in 2004 to start a family, but came out of retirement in 2014, training with her Israeli teammates to qualify for Rio. She was the oldest member of the Rio delegation at the age of 37. On finishing, the race Bloch said "I'm so happy that I managed to finish the race. This gives me an amazing sense of satisfaction. I'm so proud to represent Israel. I thank God for this opportunity." Bloch was ranked 88 in the world at the time of qualification, and finished in 48th place with a time of 4:02:59.
AthleteEventTimeRankShani BlochWomen's road race4:02:5948
Mountain biking Israel qualified one mountain biker for the men's Olympic cross-country race, as a result of his nation's twenty-second-place finish in the UCI Olympic Ranking List of 25 May 2016. This marked the first time an Israeli competed in the Olympics in mountain biking. Haimy started the race well, sitting in fourth place after the first kilometer. Haimy was passed by several competitors when his bike tire was punctured. The puncture caused him to fall to 44th place. He continued the race and finished in 29th place with a time of 1:43:30, slightly over 10 minutes behind the winner.
AthleteEventTimeRankShlomi HaimyMen's cross-country1:43:3029
Golf
Israel entered one golfer into the Olympic tournament. Laetitia Beck (world no. 237) Data as of 15 August 2016, prior to the beginning of the Olympic women's golf tournament. qualified directly among the top 60 eligible players for the women's event based on the International Golf Federation (IGF) World Rankings as of 11 July 2016. This marked the first time Israel sent a golfer to the Olympics. Due to Israel's inexperience representing golf athletes, Beck was required to procure all of her equipment to prepare for Rio, such as her uniform and hats. Israel's Olympic committee reimbursed her for the equipment. On the topic of representing Israel at the Olympics, Beck said "I think it's because of what my grandparents had to go through, not just my grandparents but everyone during World War II, all the Jewish people during World War II and the holocaust, that obviously brings me anger, but i think what i'm trying to do is bring the anger and try to do something meaningful." Beck finished tied for 31st with a score of two over par. Her best round was the third round, where she was tied for 13th place.
AthleteEventRound 1Round 2Round 3Round 4TotalScoreScoreScoreScoreScoreParRankLaetitia BeckWomen's75707170286 +2=31
Gymnastics
Artistic Israel entered one artistic gymnast into the Olympic competition. Two-time Olympian Alexander Shatilov qualified and claimed his Olympic spot in the men's apparatus and all-around events via the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro by participation. Shatilov participated in both the London and Beijing Olympics. He did not advance following the qualification round in the floor and horizontal bar events due to not achieving eighth place or higher in either. Shatilov's loss in the qualification rounds makes Rio his worst Olympic finish ever. In regards to the loss, he said "things didn't go as I planned, but that happens in sport and there's nothing I can do about it. You need to know how to cope with disappointments and life continues. I trained hard and wanted to have a good competition, but you can't turn the clock back. I started my floor drill well, but a small mistake cost me and I knew I had no chance after that. I never imagined a scenario like this." He performed poorly in both the floor and bar routines, scoring 13.5 points in the floor routine, and 14.066 points in the bar routine. The floor exercise was riddled with errors and ended with a landing where it appeared as if he was trying to break a fall.
Men AthleteEventQualificationFinalApparatusTotalRankApparatusTotalRankAlexander ShatilovFloor13.500colspan=5 13.50058did not advanceHorizontal barcolspan=5 14.06614.06644did not advance
Rhythmic
Israel qualified a squad of rhythmic gymnasts for the individual and group all-around by finishing in the top 15 (for individual) and top 10 (for group) at the 2015 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The competitors in the team event all made their first Olympic debut. The group was considered Israel's best chance for a gold at the Olympics after they had finished in first place for the hoops and clubs disciplines at the European Championships. In the first round, Israel finished in sixth place. The team performed worse in the second round, with their score the worst among all teams. The group all-around achieved a total of 34.883 points and qualified for the final after finishing in sixth place in the qualification round. The team finished in sixth place again in the finals round with a total of 34.549 and did not win a medal.
Neta Rivkin was the flag bearer of the Israeli team at Rio's opening ceremony, her third Olympic Games, at the age of 24. In her first rotation, the ball, she scored 17.866 and was in 6th place out of 26 competitors, but she dropped the hoop and ribbon in her next two rotations. She came in 13th overall in the individual qualification round, with a total score of 69.223 points, and consequently did not advance into the top 10 finals. Rivkin announced her retirement from gymnastics in a press conference following the Olympics.