Yael Arad will today become the first woman in the young history of our Olympic sports to serve as chair of the Israeli Olympic Committee.
Arad, Israel's first medalist, will break another glass ceiling.
Its path to chairing the committee was paved after the Hapoel Center, headed by Yoram Orenstein, made it clear to Moshe Ponti, the candidate on behalf of Hapoel, that he had no intention of ordering the heads of the unions to vote for him.
Ornstein, rightly so, prefers to control the Football Association rather than the apple peelers and borax snacks from Sheetrit Street in north Tel Aviv. Yoram Oberkovich passed away.
In July last year, we published in "Israel Today" about the possible candidacy of the Canadian philanthropist Sylvan Adams to chair the committee or as someone who will support Ponti.
Ayelet Frisch, Adams' personal assistant, who handles all his logistical matters, was quick to remove him from the idea in order to keep Adams "clean", after he was not identified with any failure in Israeli sports except perhaps his "Israel Startup Nation" bicycle group.
The Canadian-Israeli accepted her advice and went backwards.
He did not withdraw his support for Ponty Adams, but the union leaders, mostly medium-sized activists, were not enthusiastic about Adams and preferred to remain loyal to their centers.
After all, how much vision can one expect from people who are still collecting taxi receipts on trips abroad to get refunds?
To set an example for women
Arad's challenges ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris and Los Angeles are clear: The introduction of an Arab athlete for the first time since the 1974 Montreal Games to the Olympic squad.
40 years without an Arab Olympic athlete on the Olympic team, are a little too much for Olympic sports in Israel.
The second issue is an issue close to Arad's core and is the role of women in sports: not only increasing the number of female athletes but also the number of activists.
Arad should try and surround herself with women almost as strong as her, to show that change has been made not only on the field but also in key positions.
And of course there is the issue of visibility: in Israel, unfortunately, it is still not easy to be a girl and an athlete - the issue of body image, insults against the background of sexual orientation and life with dealing with prejudice, are still the lot of many athletes in the beginning.
In this sense, unlike other activists, Arad can serve as an example as someone who has always fought in a male world, from judo to activism, and knew not to hide, not to be ashamed and to express her opinion as someone who has always been at the center of public action.
In this sense, Arad's success can also serve as inspiration just like her successes in the sports arena.
