Scorer Julia Chernoy became on Thursday, the first Israeli athlete to take a place at the Paralympic Games in Paris in more than two years after winning the gold medal at the World Cup in France in a 10-meter recumbent air rifle competition.
Photo: Guy Strick
Chernoy, who was born in Kazakhstan and immigrated to Israel at the age of 18 without her family from Belarus (through an outstanding program), was born with mild cerebral palsy, restricted in walking, and used a cane, when only at 30 she started para-triathlon, and in 2012 won the European Championship.
She was adopted by the Tel Aviv Warrior House, when she began training in the rowing industry, in a double boat with her partner Reuven Magnaji - an IDF invalid, also a member of the Warrior House.
The two competed in the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, picking up ninth place.
After the games in Tokyo, for personal and professional reasons she decided not to continue in the marine industry, and sought to specialize in the shooting industry, which eventually led her to Tokyo last year and now, for the third time for games.
Julia Chernoy.
Secured her place in the Paralympic Games, Photo: Dubi Tal
"This is the eighth time I have been in France and I have never been to Paris and now I will finally get there," Chernoy laughed in a special interview with Israel Today, after securing her place in the Paralympic Games.
"It's beyond amazing, it's an amazing feeling - even divine to get to the games."
The campaign has just started and can now be kept quiet for two years until the games
"What is a quiet mind? There is no quiet mind here. We continue to work hard. It's not that I took a ticket and I came to rest. The goal is not just to take a ticket, last time I only had a rifle in 2017 and two years later I already got a ticket."
So that means you can aim high
"It's always the goal, to get to the final after I did your best and there everything is already open. Even now there was a challenging competition, maybe one of the toughest competitions I have had in my life. I got excited on crazy levels and in the end I took it to a place that helps me."
"In the qualifiers it's to see 60 balls in 50 minutes. It's a lot of time, and the excitement for a moment did not leave me. I had a crazy pulse, maybe a pulse of 190 and nothing to do with it, it's like jumping into the water and the excitement goes down, here the excitement goes nowhere, stays "All the way. You have to know how to take the excitement and connect with it, and use it to your advantage."
"It is also special that it is a mixed competition for men and women, there is almost no such thing and also a competition with the most participants, with 57 competitors in my category. There is no other Paralympic industry with so many participants, so it will be at the Olympics."
This will be your third time in games, what lessons are you producing?
"I come with a package for games. Rowing I did I do not take it as an experience, because it has nothing to do today, not in a physical or mental section. I learned a lot in Tokyo, and especially on the way there. I lacked more competitive experience and hours with weapons in hand."
Julia Chernoy.
Continues to break records, Photo: Disabled Sports Association
"There is a rule of 10,000 hours - to be an expert you have to spend so many hours - there is such a theory, when you only have to accumulate them with a weapon in your hands, not at the spa or in the gym."
What did your coach Guy Strick tell you at the end?
"When I finished the competition, when I shot one last ball, I did not know where I was. I was exhausted when everyone got up and left and I keep sitting, I did not realize it was over and what place I was. When I turned my head and saw Guy running and jumping then I realized I was first, And a champion and that's how you do it. "
What is the shooting industry for you?
"When you look at life on a daily basis, it does not have much meaning, but shooting you do not do it just for you, when I took first place and stood on the podium I was very excited. I am a working person and have a family, and manage to combine everything, together with shooting."
Indeed, Chernoy combines sports with work, and in addition to competing and training on a daily basis, she has also conducted training and courses at the Electric Company for over 12 years.
"They help me, any other workplace would have fired me a long time ago," she testified.
"What employer has a person who is not in periods? They are also accommodating and supportive, give backing, my staff are also amazing people. It's not easy, I'm now back from competition, exhausted and on Sunday I'm back to work, can not continue to rest."
Julia Chernoy.
A successful term in the rowing industry as well,
"On the other hand, Strick will not let me rest either, because I have to keep training, because there is another long season of competitions, but that is my choice. I do not complain or stop."
"I have an amazing wife"
On December 15 last year, Chernoy Post posted, in which she announced to the world about her marriage to Efrat and wrote: "Dear Efrat, I want to thank you for making my life whole. I am so lucky to be your wife, and I look forward to our life together."
The post was accompanied by two photos, the first of their wedding clothes made in Copenhagen, Denmark and the second - wearing the rings, but without the faces of the two, this is because of Efrat's sensitive work.
"We are officially married, she is not a spouse, not my wife," says Chernoy about her relationship with Efrat.
"I can not tell much, only that she is an amazing woman, but her role does not allow to talk about her too much."
But she probably supports your athletic career
"I have an amazing wife, supportive and accommodating and giving me a back. She is my back. When we have a 7-year-old boy who already wants me to come back. It means he misses me."
You have really started to be active on social networks in the last few months, what reactions do you get?
.
Guy Strick.
The coach who jumped for joy,
Finally, what is your purpose in life?
"Everyone says, 'Believe in yourself, dream big.' I believe that no matter how hard it is now, you have to lower your head and work hard, without hard work - nothing will work. It takes a lot of patience, I also hope that as many disabled children as possible invest in shooting practice. "Just invest in your disabled children, do not send them to football with healthy children. Make them champions in your own way."
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