Gal Fridman
RS:X , 2007) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Updated on 8 August 2012 |
Gal Fridman (or Friedman,
He was born in
.Early life and career
Fridman was born in
In 1995, he won the ASA Boardsailing Championship in
1996 Summer Olympic Games, Atlanta
At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Fridman won a bronze medal for Israel in the Olympic Sailing Windsurfing Event (Mistral Men's Windsurfing category), and was named Israeli Sportsman of the Year.[3]
2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney, Australia
Despite his form in the previous years, he failed to win the Israeli Olympic Trials and did not represent Israel in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Amit Inbar represented Israel in the 2000 Olympics and finished 7th overall.
2004 Summer Olympics, Athens, Greece
Back on form leading up to the 2004 Olympics, Fridman was one of Israel's Olympic Team favorites to a win a Medal (along with
Fridman was coached by retired Olympic windsurfing silver (1992) and bronze medalist (1988) Michael Gebhardt from the U.S.
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 thrown out)
In the last race on August 25, 2004, Fridman finished a hard-fought 2nd, exploiting a tactical mistake made by Brazilian leader Ricardo Santos and beat Greek windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis in order to end the Olympic Regatta with the lowest score of 42 points, which secured his 2004 Olympic gold medal in windsurfing. Olympic sailing events scores are tabulated with the lowest score (best results combines) winning. Fridman won Israel's first Olympic gold medal.
Fridman dedicated his medal to the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by terrorists during the 1972 Summer Olympics.[5]
Final results
1st: Gal Fridman – Israel (Gold medal)
2nd: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis – Greece (Silver medal)
3rd: Nick Dempsey – Great Britain (Bronze medal)
4th: Ricardo Santos – Brazil
5th: Przemysław Miarczyński – Poland
2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, China
Approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Fridman found it hard to adjust to the new Olympic Windsurf board model, the RS:X Neil Pryde windsurfer. Also he had some crucial equipment failures at key Olympic trail regattas and failed to qualify for the 2008 Israeli Olympic Sailing Team. Shahar Tzuberi took his place and went on to win the 2008 Olympic bronze medal for Israel.
Later years
Fridman, an avid cyclist, won a gold medal in the Israeli cycling championship in 2005.[6] In 2007, he won the Men's Windsurfer New Year International Regatta in Limassol, Cyprus.
After 2008, Fridman retired from competition in windsurfing and focused on coaching up-and-coming Israeli windsurfers. He guided Nimrod Mashiah to the silver medal in the 2009 World Championship.[7]
In June 2005, his bronze and gold Olympic medals were stolen, with only the gold medal recovered from the robbery. Fridman currently coaches Israel's top windsurfers preparing for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and currently owns a standup paddleboarding (SUP) company. He is involved with helping the SUP company "Starboard" with SUP R&D and can be found giving motivational speeches worldwide.
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 |
2001 | Mistral European Championship | 3nd |
2002 | Mistral European Championship | 2nd |
2002 | Mistral World Championship, Thailand | 1st |
2003 | ISAF World Championship
|
3rd |
2004 | Olympic Games, Athens | 1st |
See also
- List of Olympic medalists in sailing
- List of World Championships medalists in sailing (windsurfer classes)
- List of Jews in sports
- Israel at the Olympics
- Sports in Israel
References
- ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Gal Fridman". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
- OL 8769453M. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
- ^ a b c "Gal Fridman, 1975–". Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
- ^ a b "Gal Fridman". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
- ^ Bialik, Carl; Fry, Jason (August 26, 2004). "Gold Medal for Israel's Fridman Comes With Memories of Munich" – via www.wsj.com.
- ^ "Gal Fridman". Retrieved August 7, 2012.
- ^ "Israel's Nimrod Mashiah wins silver at windsurfing world championship". Haaretz. September 10, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
External links
- Gal Fridman at World Sailing
- Gal Fridman at Olympics.com
- Gal Fridman at Olympic.org (archived)
- Gal Fridman at Olympedia
- Gal Fridman at the Olympic Committee of Israel (in Hebrew) (English translation)
- Gal Fridman at the Jewish Agency for Israel (archived)
- Gal Fridman at the Jewish Virtual Library
- Gal Fridman on Facebook
- Gal Fridman Achieves Olympic Glory, video at the Olympic Games official website