Gal Fridman

Gal Fridman

Fridman in action
Personal information
Native name גל פרידמן
Ethnicity Jewish
Born September 16, 1975
Karkur, Israel
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight 68 kg (150 lb)[1]
Other interests Cycling
Sport
Country Israel
Sport Sailing
Event(s) Mistral
Club Sdot Yam
Coached by Mike Gebhardt
Retired 2008
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking 1st (Mistral, 2003)
25th (RS:X, 2007)
Updated on 8 August 2012.

Gal Fridman (Hebrew: גל פרידמן‎; born September 16, 1975) is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic gold medalist. Fridman won a bronze medal in the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the only Israeli athlete to win two Olympic medals, and the first (and only, thus far) Olympic gold medalist in Israeli history. His first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew.

He was born in Karkur, Israel, and lives in Sdot Yam, a nearby kibbutz.

Early life and career

Fridman is Jewish.[2] The second out of three children, Fridman was born to Dganit and Uri Fridman, and has an older sister named Maayan and a younger brother named Yuval. Introduced by his father to windsurfing, Fridman started sailing at age 7, and began racing when he was 11. He began competing internationally in youth categories while still at school. After his service in the Israel Defense Forces he began competing as an adult.[3]

In 1995, he won the ASA Boardsailing Championship in Eilat, Israel. In 1999, he won the International ASA Windsurfing Championship in Eilat. Despite his form in the previous year, he failed to qualify to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In 2002, he won the Mistral World Championship held in in Pattaya, Thailand,[3] and was ranked #1 on the International Sailing Federation rankings in February 2003.[4]

Atlanta 1996

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Fridman won a bronze medal for Israel in the Mistral men's windsurfing category, and was named Israeli Sportsman of the Year.[3]

Athens 2004

Fridman was one of Israel's Olympic team favorites to a win a medal (along with judoka Ariel Zeevi and athlete Aleksander Averbukh), and prepared intensively for the Olympic Games two years prior to the event. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Fridman again competed in the Mistral windsurfer sailing, a discipline that included 11 races. Fridman's results were:

Race 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Place (8) 3 5 5 1 7 5 1 8 5 2

(Note: the worst race score is omitted)

In the last race on August 25, 2004, Fridman exploited a poor performance by Brazilian leader Ricardo Santos and a tactical mistake by Greek windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis in order to burst forward and finish the final race second, thus earning the gold medal overall. He achieved an overall total of 50 negative points, and a net total of 42 negative points. Since this was the lowest negative score in the competition, Fridman earned first place and received the first Olympic gold medal ever won for Israel.

Final positions:

  1. Gal Fridman – Israel (gold medal)
  2. Nikolaos Kaklamanakis – Greece (silver medal)
  3. Nick Dempsey – Great Britain (bronze medal)
  4. Ricardo Santos – Brazil
  5. Przemysław Miarczyński – Poland

Later years

Fridman won a gold medal in the Israeli cycling championship in 2005.[5] In 2007, he won the Men's Windsurfer New Year International Regatta in Limassol, Cyprus.

Approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Fridman found it hard to adjust to the model replacing the Mistral windsurfer – the RS:X Neil Pryde windsurfer, and failed to qualify for the Olympic team. A young and promising windsurfer by the name of Shahar Tzuberi took his place. After 2008, Fridman no longer competes in windsurfing, having made the switch to coaching. He guided Nimrod Mashiah to the silver medal in the 2009 World Championship.[6] He married Michal Peleg in August 2005, his girlfriend for the past ten years. In June 2005 his medals were stolen from his parents' home after a robbery, but the gold medal was retained. In July 2009, his wife welcomed a baby girl, Ella.

Hall of Fame

In 2005, Fridman was named to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[4]

Achievements

Year Tournament Result
1995 Mistral European Championship 2nd
1996 Mistral World Championship 2nd
1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta 3rd
1997 Mistral European Championship 3rd
1999 International ASA Windsurfing Championship 1st
2002 Mistral European Championship 2nd
2002 Mistral World Championship, Thailand 1st
2003 ISAF World Championship 3rd
2004 Olympic Games, Athens 1st

See also

Family Guy Season 12 Episode 10 Grimm Job

mentioned as great jewish athlete

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gal Fridman". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  2. ↑ Taylor, Paul (July 1, 2004). "A Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medallists". Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash between Sport and Politics. Brighton, United Kingdom: Sussex Academic Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-1903900871. LCCN 2004000498. OCLC 54046723. OL 8769453M. Retrieved August 8, 2012. Lay summary.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Gal Fridman, 1975–". Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Gal Fridman". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Gal Fridman". Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Israel's Nimrod Mashiah wins silver at windsurfing world championship". Haaretz. September 10, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2012.

External links