Israeli Olympic judo heroes back home: "Proud to raise the flag high" 

On Sunday evening, Israel’s three new Olympic judo medalists returned to a hero’s welcome, dedicating their medals to a nation at war and celebrating their victories despite facing calls for their exclusion from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Judokas Raz Hershko, who secured silver, Inbar Lanir, also a silver medalist, and Peter Paltchik, who earned bronze, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport with the rest of the judo team and Israel’s swimmers. Their return was met with cheers, flowers, balloons, and emotional embraces from relatives and friends.

During the Paris Games, Israel has achieved a record-breaking six medals, surpassing their previous best of four from the Tokyo Olympics.

Alongside the three judo medals, Israel won a gold in windsurfing by Tom Reuveny, a silver from Sharon Kantor in the same sport, and another silver from gymnast Artem Dolgopyat on Saturday.

Paltchik, 32, reflected on the unique significance of these Games, noting, “We arrived at the Olympic Village with a sense of mission. We knew that these Olympic Games were unique in this aspect, because we went through the biggest tragedy Israel has ever known” on October 7.

The bronze medalist in the men’s under-100kg class spoke about the immense responsibility he felt, stating, “We felt an incredible responsibility in every match and every step… our mission and our goal was to raise the flag of Israel as high as possible, in the face of everyone who wanted to boycott us.”

Paltchik also addressed the personal challenges he encountered leading up to the Games, including online death threats and attempts to have him banned. He said, “I had a very difficult period the months before the Olympics personally, threats via email, on social media, seemingly Iranian bot networks attacking, invasions of my privacy… They took a post I wrote from the start of the war, [sharing an image of Israeli bombs signed with Hebrew messages, writing ‘from me to you with pleasure’] and tried through this to ban me from the Olympic Games.”

* Times of Israel contributed to this article.