Rio 2016
The Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil in 2016, were the first ever in a South American country.
In these games, 10,239 athletes from 207 countries participated.
While Usain Bolt from Jamaica once again dominated the athletics track with 3 personal gold medals, the show was stolen from him by American gymnast Simone Biles, who won 5 medals, 4 of which were gold and one bronze.
The Israeli delegation to Rio was the largest Israel has ever sent to the Games.
47 athletes who competed in 17 sports went to Rio, and two of them returned with medals, both in judo: Yarden Gerbi won bronze in the under 63 kg category, and Ori Sasson also won bronze in the over 100 kg category.
Ori Sasson’s coach, Oren Smadja, was the first Israeli to win medals at the Olympics, first as an athlete and then as a coach.
Another record was broken by the synchronized swimmer Anastasia Gloushkov, who became the first female athlete to represent Israel in 4 Olympics.
