Mold on the walls that endangers health, buckets are scattered to collect the rain that seeps from the ceilings, peeling walls and athletes slipping.
This is how Israel's taekwondo team is forced to live in the training facility in Ramla.
The warriors who finish the day, arrive at their rooms located behind the training hall, but the rainy last winter has done its thing in the old building and the place is unfit for human habitation and athletes preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics, including Tokyo bronze medalist Avishag Samberg.
Only recently, during the Israeli championships that also took place in Ramla, Mayor Michael Vidal announced that he would take care of the renovations at a cost of NIS 1 million, but did not specify when this would happen, while in the meantime the athletes are the ones suffering.
"It's been like this for a long time," an athlete told Israel Today.
We hope someone will take care of it as soon as possible. "
Another athlete said: "It's really dangerous for our health too, we breathe this mold and can get sick. We were in training camps and saw what conditions our friends have abroad."
In recent years, the team has been training at the Sharabi Martial Arts Center on Keren Hayesod Street in the city, where the hall itself has been renovated in recent years and even has air conditioners and a gym corner, but the residential buildings with showers, living rooms and living room are very old and have not been treated for some time. Long.
The Ramla municipality responded: "The mayor, Michael Videl, has allocated about one million shekels for the martial arts center upgrade program, to be called the 'World Champions Sports Hall'. "The goal of the program is to turn the place into a small Olympic village, with the intention of growing medalists and other taekwondo champions in the city."
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