As a country that is used to commissions of inquiry into failures and disasters, how fun is it to stop and ask this time where all this good comes from? The surprise lies in the magnitude of the achievements – world championships, success in major disciplines such as the marathon, gymnastics, swimming and in the wide variety of disciplines in individual and team sports – from water polo, through soccer to fencing. So where did all this goodness come from? The answer to this is also varied and not rooted in one factor. Some of the factors are internal, and some are the result of external processes.
Let’s start with the factor that warms the heart the most: maturation of long-term processes, training and management without compromise. Yes, it turns out that even in the “nation of shortcuts” it is possible otherwise, and the quality of the results and the number of our marathon runners at the top of the world are the proof of that. Coaches like Dan Salpeter, Gazchau Yosef, Zohar Zimero and others are proof that we have coaches at an international level. In addition to the coaches, Gal Levy, who currently serves as the CEO of the Athletics Association, is a father figure for some of the runners, he accompanied them from a young age, in combination with the professional setup in the Athletics Association that administratively supports the coaches and provides them with the necessary conditions.
The impressive achievement of the women’s water polo team in a historic qualification for the World Championship, together with the success of the men’s team in the European Championship, is another example of the maturation of long-term processes, under the leadership of the chairman of the union, Roital Cohen-Gluska, who sweeps away an entire industry in her vision. These processes include the Opening the academy for girls in Wingate, turning every stone to provide the required conditions, hiring an international level coach and more.
Employing foreign coaches and backing their work is another important factor for success, as can be seen in the employment of Dave Marsh, who is behind the success of Anastasia Gorbenko and the general rise in swimming. In football, too, the added value of Yala Khos can be seen in the successes of the young teams, and before that of Willy Rotensteiner, who although he graduated before his time but left behind a policy and led a pro course at an exceptional level to improve the infrastructure of human capital. This infrastructure is the most important of all, and the Israeli coach does prove that he can be at the highest levels, from Barak Bacher in football, to the running coaches mentioned above, to Ayelet Sussman and Sergey Weisberg in gymnastics.
Another internal factor is the beginning of implementation of a recommendation from the de Boucher report (2017) regarding hosting international competitions and events to improve the achievements of Israeli sports. For example, recently we hosted the European Youth Championships in Athletics, the European Youth Football Championships, the Judo Grand Slam, the European Championships in water polo for women up to the age of 19 and more, and this opened the way for other important international competitions that Israel will host in a variety of disciplines in the coming years.
Hosting international competitions requires a lot of funding, and this is another point behind the recent achievements. The branches of gymnastics and judo are the prominent branches that benefit from state budgets that until a few years ago they could only dream of. In addition to this, the most prominent Olympic athletes in Israel today receive one of the best financial and professional envelopes in the Western world, also thanks to an increase in the support of sponsors.
The diverse and extensive success is therefore the result of a combination of internal and external factors, such as the corona virus, the war in Russia and more. As in life – many things depend on us, but not only on us. This is a mature and sober view, and if the sport knows how to adopt it, it may even get rid of the Israeli pattern of “either scandal or festival”. The formation of a more mature way of thinking, along with a belief in our ability to succeed thanks to leading long-term processes, can be the real change that Israeli sports are hoping for.
The authors are Dr. Niv Nahalieli, leader of internships in management and education in sports as part of master’s degrees, Ono Academic Kirya; and Dr. Alon Afek, director of the practicum field at the Academic Kirya