A sad day for Israeli sports and the country as a whole.
Nissim Kivithi, one of Israel's greatest sports broadcasters of all time, passed away at the age of 97.
Kivithi was a journalist, announcer and TV host, but above all one of Israel's greatest sports broadcasters for generations.
The late Kivithi made a tremendous contribution to sports and sports media in Israel due to his unique and beloved voice that sports fans listened to for decades. In the years when information was not available online as it is today, Kivithi was a knowledgeable professional who gave Channel 1 viewers a professional experience full of details, especially in the fields Like athletics and swimming, which he skillfully broadcast to the eyes of the entire country.
In his youth Kivithi was an athlete and his first significant victory was the title of champion of the Land of Israel in the 1,500 meter run at the age of 20. In 1949 he won the Israeli championship in the 400 and 800 meter races.
Upon his release from the army he moved to London and a year later at the Maccabiah Games in 1950 he won a silver medal in the long jump and a bronze medal in the triple jump for England.
He began his career in sports broadcasting for the BBC's Hebrew Broadcasting and thus was able to broadcast on the radio Israel's first participation in the Olympic Games, in Helsinki 1952. In the 1970s he began broadcasting the athletics and swimming events for Channel One and in 1972 during the Olympic Games he also covered the massacre of the athletes in Munich .
At the same time he worked as a journalist until in the late seventies he chose to leave the profession to devote himself to his work as a sports broadcaster - then he also began broadcasting football games and tennis competitions.
In addition to presenting the programs "Matt Sport" and "Shaar Rishon", among other things Kivithy was able to broadcast the 1986 and 1990 World Cup games as well as the game of the Israel team against Australia in the 90 World Cup qualifiers, in which Eli Ohana scored one of the most important goals in the country's history. Despite the elimination against Colombia in the World Cup qualification playoffs.
"Eli Ohana... yes!", I shouted with a trembling and excited voice, in what became a mythological television moment. It also broadcast the great victory of the Israeli national team, 1:2 over Yugoslavia.
In 1991 he retired and in January 2014 he received an award for lifetime achievement in sports, in a ceremony organized by the Israel Veterans Sports Association.
Of blessed memory.
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