Israeli swimmer Ami Dadaon won another gold medal at the Paris Paralympics yesterday, which is now his third Olympic medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics (two gold medals and one silver).
Key Highlights:
- Dadaon finished with a time of 2:49.26, over three seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
- This marks his third medal in Paris, following a gold in the 100m freestyle and a silver in the 150m individual medley.
- At 23, Dadaon, who was born with cerebral palsy, continues to dominate his category.
Visibly moved during the medal ceremony, Dadaon sang along to "Hatikvah".
In a post-race interview with Sport5, he reflected on the moment's significance: "When I'm on the podium, I think about our nation and everything it is going through, and I know that if I can succeed in bringing a few moments of satisfaction, I've already done my part."
While Dadaon didn't break his own world record of 2:44.84, set at the Tokyo Paralympics, his performance was commanding. He outpaced Roman Zhadanov from Russia, who competed as a neutral athlete due to the ongoing Olympic ban on his country.
This is Dadaon’s third medal so far in these Paris Paralympics, after winning gold in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 150m individual medley. With only one event left (Friday’s 50m freestyle) he could do even better in these Paralympics than he did when he won three Olympic medals in Tokyo.
His victory adds to Israel's impressive medal tally, now standing at seven, including four golds: Aside from Dadaon, Mark Malyar won bronze in the 100m backstroke, rower Moran Samuel won gold in the women’s single sculls, Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin earned bronze in the mixed double sculls and Asaf Yasur won gold in Taekwondo (men’s under-58kg weight class).
* Arutz Sheva contributed to this article.