About six months before the Olympics and after another disappointment at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam, Uri Sasson, the star of "The Singer in the Mask," seems to be tired of judo. "If Uri fails in Tokyo, he will retire alone," "When he wants, he's one of the best in the world"
Uri Sasson.
A closing song?
Photo:
Alan Shiver
Shortly after the Corona postponed the Tokyo Olympics last summer, and the future of Olympic sports became ambiguous following the announcement that the Olympic Committee would not support athletes even if they won competitions, Uri Sasson, the Olympic medalist from the Rio Olympics, addressed his coach, Oren Moshe Samadrog Phonetic please strange.
Request 12 then came up with a new program called "The Singer in the Mask," and Sasson was invited to participate as a singer in a falafel dish costume.
Ponty and Samadja did not die for the idea, but seemed to have no choice.
There was no professional sport and no one knew when it would be, Olympic athletes do not make much money anyway and it was a one-time opportunity for Sasson to enjoy a few moments of glory.
With a heavy heart, they approved Sasson to participate in the reality show.
This week, after being nominated for a medal at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam, Sasson was eliminated in the first round, and his stunned face was hard to hide even through masks and corona suits.
This is not the first time Sasson gives this feeling and then comes back, winning medals and proving that with his back to the wall he is still one of the best in the world in his weight (over 100 kg). "We need to give him back his hunger and we know how to do it," Union President Moshe Ponti on the mantra for the past three and a half years, every time Uri messes up.
On the professional side, the team says: "Uri always rises in the really important competitions. Tell him 'Olympic Games', and he wakes up. If he comes to Tokyo and manages to bring a medal, everyone will be surprised that he continues to the third Olympics.
The last time the judo team felt the medalist was out of focus, they moved him from his apartment in the old north of Tel Aviv to the Wingate Institute area.
The union now intends to curb interviews and media exposure to all concerned.
"The celebration around Said Moulay was perhaps justified, but it hurt everyone - both the coach and the athletes. There are now five months until the Olympics and that's it. They will not be interviewed until the games," the team said last night.
As for the chairman of the Judo Association, Moshe Ponti, it is still too early to eulogize Sasson: "When Uri wants, he is still one of the best judokas in the world in his weight, and no one will say otherwise.
We are waiting to see if there will be Olympic Games, and from there we will make our thinkers and act accordingly. "
And perhaps, like most Israeli judokas, in the end the transcendence can occur for them in one-off Olympic Games.
Jordan Jerby, for example, could have gone on to more Olympics, but decided to stop everything when she was at her peak.
Sasson has made a different decision, and he intends to show everyone that if the Tokyo Games take place, he will feed everyone falafel with lots and lots of pepper.
