All Israeli eyes were on Daria Atamanov in Rhythmic Gymnastics on Thursday as the Paris Olympic Games approached the final few days of competition
In the Individual All-Around Qualification stage, Atamanov finished the ball routine with a score of 32.700 and hoop with a score of 33.250 to place her 11th overall ahead of her routines in ribbon and clubs. In ribbon, Atamanov scored 32.400 in a fantastic routine and then added a 32.100 in clubs to finish the qualification round with an overall score of 130.450 good for seventh place as she advanced to the finals being one of the top 10.
“I was really excited the entire day from top to bottom, it was a lot of fun,” Atamanov said. “I tried to do my maximum in each of my routines. Now I am going to focus on tomorrow and hopefully I can do even better than I did today.”
Her coach, Ayelet Zussman, also spoke about Atamanov’s performance.
'Above and beyond'
“She came in here without Olympic experience but she didn’t just do the maximum, she did more than above and beyond. I really believe in her and in her abilities as we head into the finals.”
Atamanov is coached by Zussman and by Israeli former gymnast and 2020 Olympic gold medal winner Linoy Ashram. The 18-year-old is considered to be an up-and-coming star in the sport, having won multiple medals over the past few years in all four balls, hoops, clubs, and ribbons, as well as in all-around competitions.
The Rishon Lezion native will no doubt have her work cut out for her, but the rising star was issued the “Outstanding Performance” award by the European Gymnastics Union this past February and is continuing her upward trend in order to compete with the best of the best from around the world.
In Marseille, Women’s Kite featuring Gal Zukerman saw her finish in third place in Semifinal A and was eliminated from medal contention. The Mixed Dinghy team of Nitai Hasson and Noa Lasry finished the medal race in 10th place and ended the competition in seventh overall.
On Friday, Matan Roditi will be competing in the 10km Men’s Marathon Swimming, an event in which he finished fourth in back at the Tokyo Olympics, as the 25-year-old will look to take one of the top spots and score another medal for the Israeli delegation. Roditi qualified for the Games this past February at the World Open Water Championships where he came in 10th out of 79 swimmers in the 10km race with a time of 1:48:31.7 at the Doha Port in Qatar.
Also on Friday, the Rhythmic Gymnastics Team will be looking to qualify for the Group All-Around Final which will take place on Saturday. The squad of Ofir Shaham, Diana Svertsov, Adar Friedmann, Romi Paritzki and Shai Bakanov have experienced much success over the past couple of years having won the European Cup in Baku in 2024 as well as the World Championships in Valencia back in 2023. The team is no doubt a favorite to win a medal in the competition as it will look to take the top spot on the podium and have Hatikva played yet again in Paris.
The final stretch for the podium
On Friday and Saturday, the Artistic Swimming duo of Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee will be in the pool as they will compete in the Duet Technical Routine as well as the Duet Free Routine.
This will be Bobritsky’s second Olympic Games while Nassee will be making her debut, however the duo have been collaborating together for a few years. In 2023, the pair won gold at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Oviedo, Spain and this past April they captured gold once again in the Women’s Duet Free at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Beijing, China.
A trio of Men’s Marathon runners will be on the streets of Paris as Maru Teferi, Girmaw Amare and Gashau Ayale will look to make blue-and-white history.
For Teferi this will be his third Olympics, Amare his second and Ayale his first as the three Ethiopia-born runners who made Aliyah over the past couple of decades all recently competed in a half marathon and finished in the top 10 at the European Athletic Championships in Rome, Italy.
In Cycling - Track, Mikhail Yakovlev will once again be in competition, this time in Men’s Keirin as he will look to build off of his fine showing in Sprint earlier in the week.
In Keirin, races last roughly 2.5 minutes in length and consist of six laps, 1.5 km in length, as the cyclists are paced by a motorized bike for three laps with increasing speed from 30 to 50 kilometers per hour which is then followed by a three-lap sprint to the finish.
The Women’s Marathon will take place on Sunday, the final day of the Games, as Lonah Chemtai Salpeter and Maor Tayouri will both be running for Israel.
Salpeter, who was the country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony, comes into her third Olympics with high hopes after having had two rough showings in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. For Tayouri this will also be her third Games as she will look to better her previous results as well.