Samuel basks in bronze glow of medal
World champion rower first Israeli on podium at Rio Paralympics with 3rd-place sculls finish
A journey Moran Samuel reluctantly embarked on 10 years ago reached its culmination in Rio on Sunday.
The 34-year-old claimed Israel’s first medal at the 2016 Paralympics by taking a bronze in the arms-shoulders women’s single sculls final, clocking a time of 5:17.46 minutes.
Great Britain’s Rachel Morris won the gold (5:13.69m), with China’s Lili Wang (5:16.65m) taking the silver.
Samuel won the gold medal at last year’s world championships and was aiming to do the same in Rio. She couldn’t hide her disappointment at the finish line, but the frown was soon replaced by a huge smile as the magnitude of her achievement sunk in.
Samuel lost sensation from the waist down when she was struck by a rare spinal stroke originating from a congenital disorder in 2006.
At the time, she was a professional basketball player and it took a joint venture between the Athena project, the national council for promoting women’s sport in Israel, and the Israel Sports Association for the Disabled to reestablish a women’s wheelchair basketball team three years later, to get Samuel back on court.
She was told that if she wanted to reach the top she should try an individual sport and it didn’t take long until she began to scale the podium in rowing competitions.
After ending London 2012 in fifth place, she took a silver medal at the world championships in 2014 before clinching first place last year.
Samuel, who is an accomplished physiotherapist and was lecturing across the country even before her medal in Rio, could afford to become a full-time athlete thanks to the financial support of the Altshuler Shaham Group and the significant help she receives from the Daniel Rowing Center, the Israel Paralympic Committee and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization.
“I came a long way with coach Paula Grizzetti and now I have a bronze (arad in Hebrew) medal to go with my son who is also named Arad,” said Samuel, who had a baby with partner Limor Goldberg last year.
“I started off really well and the conditions were in my favor in the first half of the final. Unfortunately, I’m carrying an injury in my left hand over the past six months and the wind here forced me to work really hard with my left hand. I got really tired and I couldn’t use the hand at the end of the race.”
The Israel delegation was hoping to add to its medal tally late Sunday night. Shraga Weinberg and Itai Erenlib were in action in the men’s quad wheelchair doubles semifinals, while three swimmers also took part in finals.
After both being knocked out in the first round of the singles, Weinberg and Erenlib faced Americans David Wagner and Nick Taylor. The losers will play for the bronze medal.
Weinberg won a bronze medal in the doubles four years ago and a silver in 2008.
Swimmer Inbal Pezaro advanced to the women’s SB4 100m breaststroke final from fourth place overall on Sunday. The final took place overnight.
Pezaro won three medals in each of the previous two Olympics, taking three bronzes in 2012 and three silvers four years earlier.
Itzhak Mamistvalov and Iad Shalabi both reached the final of the men’s S2 200m freestyle, qualifying from seventh and eighth positions, respectively, with thei final also taking place after press time. On TV: Paralympics daily wrap-up show (live on Channel 1 at 7:30 p.m.)