Olympic Gymnast Strikes Gold for Israel at European Championship in Munich
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by Sharon Wrobel
Illustrative: Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat at a 2018 competition in France. Photo: Aristoi / Wikimedia Commons
Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat on Sunday won a gold medal in men’s floor exercise final at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Munich, Germany.
“You are a champion! Great pride!,” congratulated Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
The Ukrainian-born Israeli athlete who just recovered from an injury came in first posting a 14.966 score overtaking that of Hungarian gymnast Krisztofer Meszaros coming in second place and that of British athlete Jake Jarman in third place.
“I’m very happy to be back for the first big competition since the Olympics and I’m glad I did a good exercise,” Dolgopyat told Israeli news portal N12. “I would especially like to thank my physiotherapist who rehabilitated me in just two weeks from a leg injury.”
Dolgopyat’s score came weeks after the gymnast was not able to partake in competitions as he had been diagnosed with a foot injury. Last year, Dolgopyat won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the country’s first gold medal since Athens in 2004, and its first in artistic gymnastics. The Olympic gold medalist in December received the Light of Israel award at Israel’s Foreign Ministry for representing the country around the world by excelling in his professional field.
“Incredibly proud of gymnast Artem Dolgopyat for winning the gold medal at the European Gymnastics Championships in Munich,” tweeted Yaki Lopez, Head of Public Diplomacy at the Israel Embassy in Berlin. “It is more than symbolic that almost 50 years to the day after the Munich massacre, an Israeli athlete sings the Israeli anthem from the top of the podium.”
On Sept. 5, a 50th anniversary ceremony is being planned in Munich to commemorate the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Meanwhile, relatives of the Israeli athletes killed at the games remain locked in a disagreement with the German government over compensation and plan to boycott the main memorial ceremony.
