Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, sports have played an increasingly important role in the development of the country both at home and on the international stage. Despite its small population, Israel produces star athletes such as tennis champion Shachar Peer and soccer player Yossi Benayoun, who regularly make headlines for [...]

We’ll give you three hints. It draws more than 10,000 athletes from 60 countries around the globe. It starts July 13. Oh, and it takes place in Israel. Can you guess?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons Ynet reported Sunday on the amazing story of the top two finishers in the under-19 division of Friday’s Tel Aviv Marathon. It turns out that John Pasahi and Taspaldat Dasta fled a civil war in their native Eritrea and trekked overland to Israel, where their running talents were discovered. They now look [...]

Photo: Getty Images While the Beijing Olympic Games made worldwide headlines last month, the Paralympic Games have gained relatively less coverage. Nonetheless, Israel’s delegation has performed remarkably, mostly out of the spotlight. As the JTA notes, the Israeli Paralympic delegation brought home six medals, fie silvers and one bronze. Three of the silvers came from [...]

Photo: Wikimedia Commons It’s been a rocky ride for Shahar Tsubari, but he finally made it to the medal podium in Beijing in mens RS:X Windsurfing. He had faced numerous challenges in his quest, including several poor finishes in premliminary races and an early deficit in the crucial final race. Nonetheless, Tsubari managed to overcome [...]

Photo: Wikimedia Commons To honor the spirit of the Olympics, which bring together athletes from around the world, Israel’s President Shimon Peres has written a poem entitled “Ray of Hope” expressing his desire for peace and friendly competition at the Games. While we couldn’t find the full text, Reuters has published some excerpts. You can [...]

One of Israel’s biggest stars in this years Olympics is tennis player Shahar Peer. She’ll be playing in the singles and women’s doubles tennis matches running Sunday through Saturday (10-16 August). Peer now has her own website where you can follow this rising star’s path, including webcasts of games (when available). After the Olympics, Peer [...]

Photo:Getty Images In the midst of all the discussion of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing (which begin in just two days), you might have wondered about Israel’s delegation to this 29th Olympiad. Well, if you weren’t, we were. Our research found a few sites with information about Israel’s athletes and Olympic news. Wikipedia’s page [...]

Photo:Getty Images The Coca-Cola Company, one of the biggest sponsors of the Olympics, has a new ad for the occasion designed by Eric Lerner, a graduate of the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Lerner’s ad, available on YouTube, combines animation and live action to show birds building a nest resembling the Olympic Stadium. [...]

I met Dror Cohen 3 years ago a few months before the Athens 2004 Paralympics. He came to Athens to literally test the waters before the actual sailing competition. I was truly impressed by his determination and love for sports and life, which by the way, has played a pretty unfair game to him. Against [...]