Olympic gold medalist Artem Dolgobiat of Israel celebrates on the podium with his medal, Ariaki Gymnastics Center; Tokyo, Japan; August 1, 2021. Reuters/Mike Blake
The 2020 Israeli gymnastics Olympic gold medalist announced Monday that he will sell the world championship medal he received on October 7, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel.
The 26-year-old gymnast, who was Israel’s second gold medalist when he claimed the top prize at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on floor, said all proceeds from the sale will go to benefit communities around Gaza that have been affected by the crisis. Israel-Hamas war.
“I parted with the medal without pain but with a lot of emotions,” said Dolgobiat, who was born in Ukraine and immigrated to Israel at the age of 12. “It is a precious medal. A medal that was all my dreams, a medal that is the pinnacle of my ambitions after the Olympic medal. But today I know that there is something more important than that. I know that Israeli society is important above all else. I will not lie, it is not easy for me, but I feel that Through the medal auction, I will truly be able to give back to the country that has given me so much.
The October 7 World Championships event in Belgium was Dolgobiat’s third outing in competition. In the previous two competitions he won the silver medal.
“It could have been the happiest day for me and the country, but it wasn’t,” Dolgobyat said of his victory in October.
The initial bid for the medal is $100,000 and will be directed to the Shoresh Fund, an emergency assistance fund focused on those affected by the mass terrorist attack carried out by Hamas, which occurred on Dolgobiat Victory Day, October 7. Terrorists stormed southern Israel, slaughtering more than 1,200 Israelis. , Most of them are civilians, and more than 200 families were taken to the Gaza Strip.
So far, Schorsch has allocated more than NIS 2 million to relief packages for evacuees, power generators for affected communities, and food items for the elderly.