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Going For Gold
Jewish Olympians at the 2004 Games in Athens.
NATE BLOOM
Special to the Jewish News
2000. Charikov coaches the Russian
Maccabiah fencing team and went to
Israel in 2001 to compete in the
Maccabiah Games.
Olympic swimmers Mark Spitz and
Lenny Krayzelburg are household
names, but have you heard of Jason
Lezak and Sarah Poewe? Krayzelburg of
Los Angeles was a superstar of the 2000
Games, coming home with two individ-
ual golds and a relay gold.
Born in Russia, Lenny's family came
to the States when he was 14. While
Krayzelburg only goes to synagogue on
Yom Kippur, he is clearly proud of being
Jewish and was the flag bearer of the
2001 American team at the Maccabiah
Games in Israel. Sadly, injuries have
hampered Krayzelburg this year, and he
barely made the Olympic team.
Speedster Jason Lezak of Irvine, Calif,
is expected to medal. Peaking now at the
ripe age of 29, Lezak may come home
with gold in glamour events like the
100-meter freestyle. Lezak, a two-medal
winner in 2000, is expected to do even
better this year.
Sarah Poewe, a dual South African-
German citizen, is the daughter of a
South African Jewish mother and a non-
Jewish German father and swims for
Germany this year. She identifies as
Jewish. Sarah swam for South Africa in
2000, and finished fourth in the breast-
-
stroke.
Poewe is the first Jewish athlete to
compete for Germany since 1936, when
the Nazis let a half-Jewish athlete com-
pete in the Berlin Summer Games as a
sop to international opinion while they
kept other top German Jewish athletes
off the team.
Charlee Minkin, 23, is a Californian
from a family of judo champions. Her
three older sisters and brother started
judo before the age of 7
all went on
to be national champs — and even her
mom eventually became a black belt.
Her father, a Vietnam vet and Alaskan
bush pilot, was killed in a crash when
Charlee was very young and judo train-
ing provided an anchor for her family
and great male role models, via caring
coaches, for the Minkin siblings.
Charlee has done well against the
medal favorites.
Daniela Krukower was born in
Argentina, grew up in Israel, but
returned to Argentina a couple of years
-
S
ome think that Jewish athletes are
as rare as good pastrami sand-
wiches in Montana. But Jewish
competitors have won medals in every
Olympics in the modern era (since
1896) and picked up 13 medals at the
2000 Games alone.
Athens may not produce as many
medals, but these are the Olympics and
just making a national team usually
means the athlete is among the best in
the world.
Twenty-nine diaspora Jewish athletes
— from America, Argentina, Austria,
Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile,
Germany, Russia and the Ukraine —
will be at the Games. The U.S. is send-
ing 14 Jews. Add in the Israeli contin-
gent of 36, and you have a small congre-
gation.
One of the Jewish athletes is Robert
Dover of Lebanon, N.J., arguably the
best equestrian (horse rider) America has
ever produced. Dover won bronze
medals in dressage in the last three
Olympics. In a sport dominated by
Europeans, he has competed in six
Olympics.
Fencing is the "Jewish Olympic
sport," with Hungarian Jews alone win-
ning 20 medals before World War II.
Russian Jews have been most promi-
nent, and Russian emigres have enriched
fencing wherever they have settled.
Four American Jews are on the U.S.
fencing team, with Olympic newcomer
Sada Jacobsen, 21, in saber, given the
best chance of winning a medal. Last
year, Jacobsen, of Dunwoody, Ga.,
became the first American woman ever
to ranked first in the world in any fenc-
ing weapon.
Sara comes from a family of fencers
— her father was a college champ; her
mother fences; and her sister, Emily, 18,
will also be on the American team.
Sergey Charikov is a member of
Russia's team. He won a gold medal in
team saber and a silver individual medal
in 1996, followed by a team gold in
Nate Bloom will send a complete list of
Jewish Olympians and mini-profiles to
any reader. Contact him at
middleoftheroadl@aoLcom The Jewish
Sports Review contributed to this article.
—