Already on Thursday, Matan Roditi who was competing in the 10k Marathon Swimming event surprised many – including himself – with an impressive fourth-place finish, just 24 seconds off of the third place finisher and less than a minute from the gold medalist Florian Wellbrock.
Early Friday morning, Linoy Ashram will begin competing in the Individual All-Around qualification as she will look to become the first Israeli rhythmic gymnast to win a medal, taking to the floor ranked No. 1 in the world. Ashram will be competing in four rotations throughout the day as she looks to book her place for Saturday’s final.
Ashram has been waiting for this moment for quite some time, in fact an extra year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 22-year old will be performing in front of an audience (on TV) of millions and has been groomed for success, has trained for success and has continued to sharpen her skills to succeed for this moment in time over the last number of years as she scaled the ladder of success.
After competition had been suspended and the sport was thrown into chaos due to COVID-19, question marks were abound as Ashram’s future was placed into doubt. Many worried that those skills would have eroded after a long layoff but the champ continued to stay in shape and work on her trade in order to be able to compete at the highest of levels as she readied for the Tokyo Games this coming summer.
In the fall of 2020 Ashram returned to active competition at the European Championships in Kyiv, where she took gold in the All-Around, which includes all four disciplines in one overall event, as she was able to overcome the current world No. 2 Alina Harnasko from Bulgaria.
At the Sofia World Cup, Ashram collected gold medals in the All-Around and Balls along with a bronze in Hoop. From Bulgaria, the next stop was Baku as the Israeli made sure Hatikvah would be played twice with gold medal wins in Hoop and Clubs while in Pesaro, Italy Ashram picked up a gold in Ball, along with a pair of silvers in Hoop and Clubs.
What made the gold in Ball so impressive was that Ashram finished at the top of the podium ahead of the Averina twin sisters from Russia who, along with Harnasko, are Ashram’s main rivals to medal at the Olympic Games.
From the trio of World Cups, Ashram was ready to make her mark last month at the 2021 European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria. Gold in Clubs once again ahead of the Averina sisters along with a pair of silvers in Ball and Hoop left Ashram primed and ready to go for Tokyo.
In addition to Ashram, Nikol Zelikman, a world class rhythmic gymnast in her own right, will also be representing Israel and will look to surprise the competition by also snatching a medal.
The Rhythmic Gymnastics team will begin their competition on Saturday with the final slated for Sunday. The team of Ofir Dayan, Yana Kramarenko, Natalie Raits, Yuliana Telegina and Karin Vexman have won numerous medals at various competitions, including the European Championships, and will look to take a place on the podium in Tokyo as well.
The Equestrian Team Jumping event will also be on tap for Friday as Ashlee Bond, Teddy Vlock, Alberto Michan and Dani G. Waldman look to build on Bond’s success in the Individual competition and compete for a medal.
Athletics will be at the forefront as well this weekend, with Lonah Chemtai Salpeter and Maor Tayuri competing in the Women’s Marathon on Saturday while Selamawit Teferi will take part in the Women’s 10,000m after having had advanced to the 5,000m final earlier in the week.
On Sunday, Marhu Teferi, Girmaw Amare, Haimro Alame will all run in the Men’s Marathon as they look to make some noise in the hallmark event on the last day of the Olympics.
Chemtai Salpeter, at the age of 32, will be a medal threat in the Women’s marathon after having won a gold medal in the World Marathon Majors in Tokyo in 2020. With her husband, Dan, by her side as her personal coach, she hopes to achieve Olympic glory in the country of the rising sun.