Linoy Ashram
Linoy Ashram is not the easiest person to catch up with these days. Understandably so, after the 22-year-old Israeli captured the All-Around Rhythmic Gymnastics gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in August and rose to legendary status in the country’s sports pantheon.
After multiple attempts to arrange an appropriate time for an interview, the Rishon Lezion native reached out to The Jerusalem Post and was happy to spend a few minutes discussing her monumental accomplishment and the big-picture implications.
“Things have started to calm down in the last two weeks, since I won the gold medal, but only a little bit,” Ashram told the Post. “There are still hundreds of messages, interview requests and corporate invitations to deal with daily, but it is all wonderful. I have gotten countless messages on WhatsApp, Instagram and all forms of social media. I really haven’t had time to respond to everyone, but I try.
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“I think I have told different versions of my story about a thousand times, but each time the whole experience still feels somewhat surreal.”
Ashram is no stranger to circular hardware around her neck, a 2018 World All-Around silver medalist, two-time (2017, 2019) World All-Around bronze medalist, the 2020 European All-Around champion and the 2019 European Games All-Around silver medalist, among many other accolades.
However, Olympic gold is different – especially as Ashram became the first-ever female Israeli athlete to top the podium and trigger the playing of “Hatikvah” at any Olympic Games.
Just the third blue-and-white competitor to earn an Olympic gold medal – along with Gal Fridman (windsurfing, 2004 Athens Games) and Artem Dolgopyat (artistic gymnastics, 2020 Tokyo Games) – Ashram is mindful of the enormity of her historic achievement, but is still getting used to the accompanying local prominence.
“One of the most surprising things to me about the whole experience isn’t necessarily all the work I put in and replaying the competition over and over in my mind, but really it is so stunning to me how many people recognize me in the streets of Israel these days, anywhere and everywhere and people of all ages, even when I am wearing a mask.”
In Tokyo, there were plenty of tense moments for the Israeli starlet, including a shaky performance in the qualification round and a dropped ribbon during her dazzling routine in the final, performed to the soundtrack of “Hava Nagila.”
Ashram had to sit on pins and needles while Russia’s Dina Averina had a chance to vault over the Sabra into first place, but ultimately the Israeli prevailed in the judges’ scores on the strength of her first three rotations and finished a minuscule .15 points overall ahead of the Russian three-time world champion.
“The hardest part of my time in Tokyo is tough to say. The moments while waiting for my fellow competitors’ final scores were very heart-palpitating, but really what was more difficult was after my first day of the qualifying competition, when I did not have my best performance and I was worried that I may not even advance to the finals.”
After breaking the Russian grip on the sport – she is the first from outside a post-Soviet Republic to win a gold medal at an Olympics where former Soviet states participated – Ashram is well aware of where her performance placed not only herself, but Israeli rhythmic gymnastics on the world stage. In fact, she borrowed a line from Tal Brody’s – the Maccabi Tel Aviv European champion – playbook.
“We are on the map and our sport is on the map,” proclaimed Ashram. “If up until now this sport was just for eastern Europeans, it can now be said that this is a sport for all. My result has opened the way for many countries that never thought in their lives that they would be able to reach such results. This can only motivate one to continue to invest and that everyone can dream that they can make it to the top with hard work.”
Looking back on her rise from a young girl training in a gym to her status now as a world and Olympic champion, Ashram had a key missive to impart.
“The most important message that I would give to the 10-year-old me and anyone else out there with a dream would be to just continue to focus on what you love about sports and surround yourself with people who love you and motivate you. And just do it your way, always!”
In November 2017, at the age of 18, Ashram enrolled in the IDF as a soldier, where she worked as an administrative assistant before being honorably discharged in December 2019 after serving her mandatory enlistment.
Since then, she has been studying education and society at the Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono.
Asked about her plans and whether she will soon start training for Paris 2024, Ashram noted that “for right now, I just want to enjoy living in this amazing moment. I want to give my body and mind time to rest, and I want to continue my studies. Soon enough, I am sure I will turn my focus toward deciding on my next sporting steps.”
No matter what the future holds for Ashram, her legacy is set in... well, gold, and she will always be a shining example of Israeli hard work and perseverance, along with global triumph and success.
“It’s exciting and emotional for me to think of myself as an ambassador for Israel, at least in the sports forum,” she stated with immeasurable pride. “I’m very honored to play this role and always want to represent not just myself but our entire country.”
Artem Dolgopyat
If Artem Dolgopyat wasn’t a household name in Israel prior to the Tokyo Olympics, he certainly is one now.
The unassuming and exceedingly modest 24-year-old artistic gymnast is still taking it all in following his remarkable gold-medal performance in the floor exercise at 2020 Games in August.
“My expectations going into Tokyo were just to do my work as best I can and then let the results come as they did. In the end I was happy, of course,” the Ukraine-born Israeli told the Post.
Dolgopyat’s passion for gymnastics goes back to the age of six when he first signed up to attend his local club in Dnipro, Ukraine, as he followed in the footsteps of his father, Oleg, who was a gymnast himself.
In 2009, Dolgopyat immigrated with his family to Israel at the age of 12. He joined the gymnastics team of Maccabi Tel Aviv and attended the Shevah Moffet school in Tel Aviv before dropping out due to language difficulties and the burden of training.
“I would tell all young athletes with dreams that you always have to believe in yourself, most importantly,” Dolgopyat told the Post. “Secondly, never stop working hard and setting expectations and goals for yourself. And dream high and never give up.”
At 18, he enlisted with the IDF, serving at the Tel Hashomer army base.
Dolgopyat continued to compete at the top youth competitions and finally broke through in 2017 when he won a silver medal in the Floor Exercise at the World Championships held in Montreal.
That same year saw him also win medals at the Maccabiah Games, which led him to medals in floor exercise both in 2018 and 2019 at the European Championships.
He qualified for the Tokyo Games by winning a silver medal in the Floor Exercise at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, and bronze and gold medals at the 2020 European Championships held in Turkey, Dolgopyat captured gold in the floor exercise and bronze in the vault.
Slowly but surely, the expectations bar was raised, with the chances of winning a medal in Tokyo moving from a pipe dream to possibility, and the Associated Press even prophetically predicting Dolgopyat’s gold medal before the Games began.
After coming out strong with a first-place qualifying performance, the Israeli had to wait over a week between qualification and the final.
“At the beginning of the waiting period, I was actually happy to have a long break, but after the fourth or fifth day, it was really hard.”
But Dolgopyat stayed mentally tough and despite scoring lower in the final than in qualifying, his scores held up for him to claim the top spot on the podium.
“In my mind, my final exercise was not the best, and I didn’t receive the highest scores, so I was extremely stressed about whether it would be enough for any medal,” he noted. “So those were the most difficult moments of the whole experience.
“When I heard the results, and realized that I had won the Gold, I wanted to cry. I actually couldn’t even believe it. Literally every single emotion went through my head and I didn’t even know how to process it.”
Throughout his post-medal media appearances, whether on television, in press conferences or media scrums, Dolgopyat maintained his levelheadedness and his calm demeanor time and again.
He refused to engage in the contentious story picked up by Israeli media and politicians regarding his inability to marry his Belarusian girlfriend, Maria Sakovich, in Israel because his mother is not considered Jewish by the rabbinate.
“First of all, it’s my personal life, and I think it isn’t so proper to discuss it in front of the entire country,” said Dolgopyat at a press conference. “These are matters of the heart, and they are mine, so I would rather not answer.”
This genuine and resolute politeness comes through when speaking to Dolgopyat directly, as does his gratitude for all those who helped pave his way to Israel’s second-ever Olympic gold medal (a total that was added to a few days later by Ashram.)
“I want to thank all the people who believed in me and surround me all the time – my family; my coaches, Sergei Vaisburg and Andrii Gribanov; my physiotherapist, Adam Badir; the Olympic Committee of Israel and the [Culture and] Sport Ministry; the Gymnastics Federation; my club, Maccabi Tel Aviv; and of course my sponsors, Bank Hapoalim, Fujitsu, Mini Line and Honda.”
Going forward, there are many opportunities for Dolgopyat, both in sports and otherwise, but he still has his sights set on more medals.
“My ultimate goal is to repeat my gold-medal performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but in the immediate future there are many other competitions for me to prepare for – the European Championships, the World Championships and others. I look forward to getting back to training little by little and going from there.”
More than any personal gratification, the number one feeling Dolgopyat has about his momentous feat is a keen sense of national pride.
“I am so thrilled to represent the State of Israel, as I have done since I was 14 years old in various international competitions. I am extremely happy that I have reached this stage and can represent our country as an elite athlete.”