Barnabas Szollos, 23, is representing Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Photo: YouTube Screenshot.

JNS.org – Barnabas Szollos achieved Israel’s best-ever individual finish at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Thursday when he came in sixth place overall in the men’s alpine combined.

The 23-year-old Hungarian-born skier, who’s representing Israel in his Olympic debut, finished second in the slalom portion of the race and 11th in the downhill section, which resulted in an overall sixth-place finish with a time of 1:45.04. The gold medal winner was Johannes Strolz from Austria; Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde earned the silver; and the bronze medal went to Canada’s James Crawford.

Szollo’s accomplishment has him tied for Israel’s best winter Olympics finish with ice dancers Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski, who came in sixth in ice dancing at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Israel’s national Twitter account congratulated Szollos on his run, saying: “For a country where most people ski on sand, 6th place is pretty good. Mazal tov, champion!”

For a country where most people ski on sand, 6th place is pretty good.

Mazal Tov champion! https://t.co/fT7VL9PhSG

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) February 10, 2022

The Feb. 10 race was Szollos’s third Olympic event; he finished 30th overall in both the men’s downhill and Super-G. He will compete in the giant slalom on Sunday and in the slalom on Feb. 16.

Raised in Austria, Szollos obtained Israeli citizenship through his father, a former coach of Israel’s national team, according to The Associated Press. He has been to Israel twice.