Edited by TJVNews.com
For the second time ever in the history of Israeli participation in the Olympic games, an athlete on Team Israel has won a gold medal, Gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, 24, has brought tremendous pride to the Jewish state as took the top sport in the artistic gymnastics floor exercise at the Tokyo Olympic games.
Dolgopyat beat out tough competition by gymnasts from Spain and China. According to a Times of Israel report, news of his gold medal win reached Israel during the weekly Sunday morning cabinet meeting. As such, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett paused the meeting and phone Dolgopyat in Tokyo as other cabinet ministers burst out in applause upon hearing the very exciting news.
“You made history. We stopped the cabinet meeting in the middle because you made this wonderful news. In the name of the government and people of Israel, we’re all proud of you. We’re waiting to welcome you home and to celebrate,” Bennett told him by phone, as was reported by TOI.
Dolgopyat is a two-time world championship silver medalist who immigrated to Israel from Ukraine at the age of 12. He was considered Israel’s best hope for a gold medal at this year’s Olympic games, according to the TOI report.
Also phoning Dolgopyat to congratulate him was Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “Artem, you made history. Do you realize you’re the number 1 in the world? We’re very emotional. I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of all Israelis,” he said, according to the TOI report.
Speaking to reporters after the medal ceremony, Dolgopyat said he was “speechless.”
“I’m still in the sky and it’s hard to come down,” he said, thanking supporters in Israel and saying, “I love you all.” He added that: “I didn’t do my best routine… and I was worried it wouldn’t be enough for a medal… but everyone else was nervous and made mistakes and it was enough.”
In an interview with Haaretz, Dolgopyat said, “The truth is that I didn’t do the exercise very clean or very good and I was really stressed. I thought it wasn’t enough. In the middle of the third stretch, I thought, ‘That’s it, I lost it all,’ but I got a grip and told myself, ‘You’re finishing this and doing it well and you’ll be in the top three.’”
