Gal Fridman

Gal Fridman (גל פרידמן; born September 16, 1975) is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic gold medalist. Fridman won a bronze medal in the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the only Israeli athlete to win two Olympic medals, and the first (and only, thus far) Olympic gold medalist in Israeli history. Fittingly, his first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew.

He was born in Karkur, Israel, and lives in nearby kibbutz Sdot Yam. In 2005, he was voted the 25th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet'.

Early life and career
Fridman is Jewish. The second out of three children, Fridman was born to Dganit and Uri Fridman, and has an older sister named Maayan and a younger brother named Yuval. Introduced by his father to windsurfing, Fridman started sailing at age 7, and racing at age 11. The first international competitions he entered were in youth categories during his school years (1989 & 1991). Afterwards he served in the IDF and began competing in adult categories.

In 1995, he won the ASA Boardsailing Championship in Eilat, Israel. In 1999, he won the International ASA Windsurfing Championship in Eilat. Despite his form in the previous year, he failed to qualify to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In 2002, he won the Mistral World Championship in Pattaya, Thailand, and in February 2003, Fridman was listed #1 on the International Sailing Federation rankings.

Atlanta 1996
In 1996 Summer Olympics, Gal Fridman won an Olympic bronze medal for Israel in the Mistral men's windsurfing category, and was named Israeli Sportsman of the Year.

Athens 2004
Fridman was one of Israel's Olympic team favorites to a win a medal (along with judoka Ariel Zeevi and athlete Aleksander Averbukh), and prepared intensively for the Olympic Games two years prior to the event. In 2004 Summer Olympics, Fridman again competed in the Mistral windsurfer sailing, a discipline that included 11 races. Fridman's results were:

(Note: the worst race score is omitted)

In the last race on August 25, 2004, Fridman exploited a poor performance by Brazilian leader Ricardo Santos and a tactical mistake by Greek windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis in order to burst forward and finish the final race second, thus earning the gold medal overall. He achieved an overall total of 50 negative points, and a net total of 42 negative points. Since this was the lowest negative score in the competition, Fridman earned first place and received the first Olympic gold medal ever won for Israel.

Final positions:
 * 1) Gal Fridman – Israel (gold medal)
 * 2) Nikolaos Kaklamanakis – Greece (silver medal)
 * 3) Nick Dempsey – Great Britain (bronze medal)
 * 4) Ricardo Santos – Brazil
 * 5) Przemysław Miarczyński – Poland

The President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and other senior Israeli officials and politicians at the time called Fridman to congratulate him. The minister of Education, Culture, and Sports, Limor Livnat, flew to Athens for the awards ceremony. He dedicated his medal to the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes assassinated by members of the Black September organization, during the Munich Olympics (1972).

Later years
Fridman won a gold medal in the Israeli cycling championship in 2005. In 2007, he won the Men's Windsurfer New Year International Regatta in Limassol, Cyprus.

Approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Fridman found it hard to adjust to the model replacing the Mistral windsurfer – the RS:X Neil Pryde windsurfer, and failed to qualify for the Olympic team. A young and promising windsurfer by the name of Shahar Tzuberi took his place. After 2008, Fridman no longer competes in windsurfing, having made the switch to coaching. He guided Nimrod Mashiah to the silver medal in the 2009 World Championship. He married Michal Peleg in August 2005, his girlfriend for the past ten years. In June 2005 his medals were stolen from his parents' home after a robbery, but the gold medal was retained. In July 2009, his wife welcomed a baby girl, Ella.

Hall of Fame
Fridman was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.