The Paralympic athlete in a special interview: "Wants to bring a medal to Israel in Paris 2024" | Israel today

For years, Israeli athletics was considered a powerhouse in the Paralympic Games, with the athletes in blue and white managing to obtain an impressive number of 114 medals, of which 36 were gold.

However, since the long jumper Yogev Kenzi won bronze at the Sydney Games in 2000, the sport has gone backwards and a small number of athletes managed to reach the games and did not come close to the medal stand.

The one who is now trying to change the situation is the discus thrower Avishai Almakais, who opened the season of international competitions this week with the silver medal at the Grand Prix in Dubai.

For Almakais, 24 years old from Ilan Haifa, this is the first international medal in his career. In this competition last year, he was ranked only in tenth place, and he only started training in the sport six months before.

His path to athletics was full of bumps.

Almakais, who grew to a height of 2.05 m, naturally began his sports career in basketball, and his father Shimon Almakais was a player himself in Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin in the National League.

When it seemed that the young Avishi was realizing his physical data and breaking through to the highest levels, everything was interrupted following a series of 15 surgeries that came to correct a phenomenon of inverted feet, club foot, with which he was born.

At the age of 15, he made the transition to wheelchair basketball, where he was added to Israel's reserve team and continued to the senior team as well.

A year and a half ago, after watching the games in Tokyo 2021, he set himself a goal - to bring a medal in Paris 2024.

Almkays.

An extraordinary story about determination, photo: Rabia Basher

"As a child, I went to the playgrounds with my father," recalls Avishi in an interview with Israel Hayom.

"There is no place he went that I wasn't with. That's how I fell in love with basketball, and as a child there was no difference between me and other children, except for the times I had to undergo surgery because of my health condition.

"Even though I was dominant, every time I had an operation it set me back. I would go back to being a rotation player, and after the rehabilitation I would go back to being a star. On a daily basis, you don't see my limitation, maybe only after training that I'm a little sore, but you can't find an athlete who doesn't have pain after training".

Were there moments of crisis?

"At the age of 15, I kind of gave up. The medical situation was not easy, and they told me that I needed to undergo another surgery. I already said that I didn't want to, because it was difficult not only physically but also mentally, so my father came up with the offer to switch to wheelchair basketball."

So why switch to athletics?

"At some point I said to myself that I wanted an individual sport, to bring a title to my country, an honorable achievement of an Olympic medal. I watched the Olympics in Tokyo, and then I met with the heads of the association and with the professional consultant Limor Goldberg. I asked what might suit me, and then they recommended the discus according to my physical data My".

What was it like to make the transition from basketball to athletics?

"It wasn't easy. Last year I also combined, when I played at Beit HaLochem in Haifa and at the same time trained in athletics. It was challenging, but we are athletes and don't complain, we do what we are told."

Do you remember the first training in athletics?

"It took me back like after the surgeries, I wasn't number one again. I told myself that I had to be the best, and that only comes with hard work and a willingness to succeed. That's what I've been doing until now, and I still have a lot of work to do."

And here it succeeded with a first medal.

what is the feeling

"I had medals before, when I won the Israeli championship, but this is my first international medal. It's just crazy, an abnormal experience when you know when you represent your country. I had tears in my eyes, it was my big dream, to bring achievements. And I'm only at the beginning ".

Almkeys with the Israeli flag.

Will he reproduce the image in Paris as well?, Photo: Jania Berger

"Not enough exposure"

Do you feel the improvement?

"Of course, in every training session. If I didn't improve then I wouldn't like it, but I'm a perfectionist athlete. It's an improvement day by day thanks to my coaches Or Kebat and Margarita Dorojon, thanks to the whole team and the shell who give me the support and strength to succeed."

In the past we were a powerhouse in athletics and they passed.

There seems to be a revival now - why do you think this is?

"There are projects to recruit new coaches and athletes, with the goal being to return Atara to its former glory - to be at the top of athletics in world Paralympic sports."

Are there things you see that still need to be improved?

"You can always improve in terms of media coverage. I think the problem with Paralympic sports is that it doesn't have enough exposure, and I hope that thanks to the achievements me and my friends achieve, we will return to the great days."

"Through the successes, I believe we will create a buzz and it will remain, like the Olympic athletes. The dream is that the day will come when we walk the streets and be recognized, ask to take a picture, all this to make the country and every person happy."

So what is the big dream?

"A medal in Paris 2024, to make the country and family happy, my parents and sisters and everyone who was around me in the difficult moments. I will continue to work hard for this and will come every day to the stadium and the gym. To succeed in a big way for the State of Israel, so that the flag will fly as high as possible."

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