Israeli rhythmic gymnast Daria Atamanov finished fifth on Friday in the individual all-around final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, as the Israeli team in the group all-around event advanced to Saturday’s finals, where it will take aim at a medal.
Atamanov, 18, and at her first Olympic contest, came third overall in the ribbon — where she performed to Gad Elbaz’s “Shir Lemaalot” — fifth in the hoop, seventh in clubs and ninth in the ball routine — where she lost points for dropping the apparatus — ending with a score of 133.850 and the fifth spot overall among the top 10 finalists.
Gold in the event went to Germany’s Darja Varfolomeev, silver to Bulgaria’s Boryana Kaleyn and bronze to Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli.
A few minutes after finishing the final, Atamanov told Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster that she was “very emotional.”
“I gave my maximum, I did everything I could,” she said, looking ebullient at her fifth-spot finish. All she thought after her error in the ball routine, she said, was “to keep fighting, to do the rest of the routines as best as I could.”
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Even after such a mistake, “there’s no time to think about it. When you finish with the ball you keep going, there’s more to do,” she said. Asked to send a message to the Israeli public, Atamanov said, “I hope they’re proud of me.”
Israel’s Daria Atamanov performs with the hoop in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around final at the Paris 2024 Olympics at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris, August 9, 2024. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)
Atamanov won a gold and silver medal at the 2022 World Games, but a few months later suffered an injury that sidelined her from competing for 10 months. At the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships last year, she won a bronze in the all-around competition.
The gymnast said the major setback “had a significant effect. It was a challenging year, without competitions and real training, but I think it’s also what gave me strength.”
Israel’s hopes for a rhythmic gymnastics medal at the Paris Games are still alive, after its five-woman team clinched a spot in Saturday’s final following the qualifier on Friday.
The team, made up of Shani Bakanov, 18, Adar Friedmann, 18, Romi Paritzki, 20, Ofir Shaham, 19, and Diana Svertsov, 19, finished sixth overall out of the 14 teams, advancing with the top 8 to the final.
Israel’s gymnasts compete in the rhythmic gymnastics group all-around qualification during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris, August 9, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)
The Israeli team finished seventh overall in the 5 hoops routine, where it briefly dropped a hoop, and fifth in the 3 ribbons and 2 balls routine, where it lost points for a tangled ribbon. The music in the hoops routine includes a snippet of “Ehad Mi Yodea,” a traditional Passover song.
In Saturday’s final, the scores are wiped clean and the top eight teams start afresh.
Paritzki told Sports5 after the qualification that the team was “very excited” to advance to the final. “We’re ready for tomorrow, we’ll show up renewed, focused, will give it our all… Tomorrow we’ll come even more ready.”
Earlier Friday, Israeli swimmer Matan Roditi finished in 16th place out of 31 swimmers in the men’s 10km open-water marathon swim with a time of 1:57:02.3.
Israeli swimmer Matan Roditi swims in the Seine River during the men’s 10km open-water marathon race at the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 9, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)
A few minutes after completing the race, Roditi, 25, told Sport5 that he was disappointed with his finish, especially after he completed the event in Tokyo in a surprise fourth place.
“It’s frustrating, I feel like I was really ready, I improved a lot over the past three years, but in the end, that’s what happened,” said Roditi.
The swimmer said: “I prepared for this for three years… The abilities were there, the strength, but it ended quickly in the first 600m [when I fell behind], and I knew I needed to give all my strength there and it wasn’t enough.”
Asked about his future competition plans following two Olympic appearances, Roditi said he “can’t say what will be in the future.”
On Friday night, Israel’s artistic swimming duo (previously known as synchronized swimming) was performing its technical routine, which will be combined with the results of Saturday’s free routine to determine the final results.
Israeli cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev races in the men’s sprint at the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 7, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)
Also Saturday, cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev will compete in the keirin, an indoor track racing spring event. Israeli runners Maru Teferi, Gashau Ayale and Girmaw Amare will race in the men’s marathon.
So far, Israel has won six medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a new record for the Jewish state: bronze for judoka Peter Paltchik, silver for judoka Inbar Lanir, silver for judoka Raz Hershko, silver for gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, silver for windsurfer Sharon Kantor and gold for windsurfer Tom Reuveny.
In its history at the Games, Israel has nabbed 19 medals overall, with nine of them in judo and five in sailing. It now has three gymnastics medals, with Dolgopyat’s additional gold in Tokyo and rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram’s gold at the same competition.
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