At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, during Israel's tenth Olympic appearance, 25 year old Arad became the first Israeli to win a medal for the country. She dedicated her medal to the 11 Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
Arad was born in Tel Aviv and began taking judo classes at age 8, winning her first international title in 1984 at age 17. At this point she ranked 7th in the world among female Judokas.
“That day I changed from a person who wanted to a person who could. And that made all the difference,” Arad wrote about her silver win.
After retiring, Arad went to coach the Israeli judo team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Five of Israel's medals have come from judo.
As of now, no other Israeli has won an Olympic silver medal, and Israel currently has one gold medal won by Gal Fridman in men's sailboarding in 2004.
So far, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games, Israel has won one bronze medal by Avishag Semberg in taekwondo.