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Gal Fridman
Gal Fridman (or Friedman, he, גל פרידמן; born September 16, 1975) is an Israeli windsurfer and Israel's first Olympic Games, Olympic gold medalist. Fridman won a bronze medal, Bronze Medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and his gold medal in the Athens 2004, Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the first of two Israelis sportsperson, athlete to win two Olympic Medals, and the first Olympic Gold medalist in Israeli history. His first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew. He was born in Karkur, Israel, and lives close to the water in Sdot Yam, a nearby kibbutz. Early life and career Fridman was born in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Karkur, Israel, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. The second out of three children, Fridman was born to Dganit and Uri Fridman, and has an older sister named Maayan and a younger brother named Yuval. Growing up close to the Mediterranean Sea, Gal was introduced by his father to windsurfing. Fridman started sailing at age seven, and be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arik Ze'evi
Ariel "Arik" Ze'evi ( he, אריאל "אריק" זאבי, born 16 January 1977) is a retired Israeli dan 6 black belt in Judo. He had a long and successful career competing in half-heavyweight Judo competitions. He is an Olympic bronze medal finalist in the 2004 Summer Olympics Judo 100 kg class in Athens. Biography Ze'evi is Jewish, and was born and raised in Bnei Brak, Israel, a predominantly Orthodox Jewish city in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. While growing up, he trained in the local Judo club in his neighborhood, together with his older brother, Roni, who was also the club's first local gold medal pioneer after having finished first in the national Israeli Judo Championships. Ze'evi, heavily influenced by his brother and his accomplishment, began training intensively, and at the age of 15 won his first national competition in the adult class, becoming the country's youngest champion ever. Despite the lack of advanced training facilities, Ze'evi continued training in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gold Medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have been awarded in the arts, for example, by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, usually as a symbol of an award to give an outstanding student some financial freedom. Others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including various academic societies. While some gold medals are solid gold, others are gold-plated or silver-gilt, like those of the Olympic Games, the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Prize medal. Nobel Prize medals consist of 18 karat green gold plated with 24 karat gold. Before 1980 they were struck in 23 karat gold. Military origins Before the establishment of standard military awards, e.g., the Medal of Honor, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of Myanmar. Thailand also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast, and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the nation's capital and largest city. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eilat, Israel
Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The city is considered a tourist destination for domestic and international tourists heading to Israel. Eilat is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arabah, adjacent to the Egyptian resort city of Taba to the south, the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to the east, and within sight of Haql, Saudi Arabia, across the gulf to the southeast. Eilat's arid desert climate and low humidity are moderated by proximity to a warm sea. Temperatures often exceed in summer, and in winter, while water temperatures range between . Eilat averages 360 sunny days a year. Name The name ''Eilat'' was given to ''Umm al-Rashrāsh'' () in 1949 by the Committee for the Designation of Place-Names in the Negev. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, Israeli security apparatus, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The IDF is headed by the Chief of the General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff, who is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense (Israel), Israeli Defense Minister. On the orders of David Ben-Gurion, the IDF was formed on 26 May 1948 and began to operate as a Conscription in Israel, conscript military, drawing its initial recruits from the already-existing paramilitaries of the Yishuv—namely Haganah, the Irgun, and Lehi (militant group), Lehi. Since its formation shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windsurfing
Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an olympic sport in 1984. Newer variants include windfoiling, kiteboarding and wingfoiling. Hydrofoil fins under the board allow the boards to safely lift out of the water and fly silently and smoothly above the surface even in lighter winds. Windsurfing is a recreational, family friendly sport, most popular at flat water locations around the world that offer safety and accessibility for beginner and intermediate participants. Technique and equipment have evolved over the years Major competitive disciplines include slalom, wave and freestyle. Increasingly, "foiling" is replacing trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashkenazi Jewish
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singular: , Modern Hebrew: are a Jewish diaspora population who coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. Their traditional diaspora language is Yiddish (a West Germanic language with Jewish linguistic elements, including the Hebrew alphabet), which developed during the Middle Ages after they had moved from Germany and France into Northern Europe and Eastern Europe. For centuries, Ashkenazim in Europe used Hebrew only as a sacred language until the revival of Hebrew as a common language in 20th-century Israel. Throughout their numerous centuries living in Europe, Ashkenazim have made many important contributions to its philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music, and science. The rabbinical term '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea, and shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. Israel also is bordered by the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally. The land held by present-day Israel witnessed some of the earliest human occupations outside Africa and was among the earliest known sites of agriculture. It was inhabited by the Canaanites ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism. In recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a ''kibbutznik'' ( he, קִבּוּצְנִיק / ; plural ''kibbutznikim'' or ''kibbutzniks''). In 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel with population of 126,000. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israel's industrial output, worth US$8 billion, and 40% of its agricultural output, worth over US$1.7 billion. Some kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karkur, Israel
Pardes Hanna-Karkur ( he, פַּרְדֵּס חַנָּה-כַּרְכּוּר) is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of . History An Arab village named Karkur had stood at this location by the time the Palestine Exploration Fund had compiled its first maps in 1878. In 1913, 15 square kilometers of land was purchased by the Hachsharat Hayishuv society from Arabs in Jenin and Haifa for 400,000 francs (a sum equivalent to 2 million US dollars). Two years later, the land was sold to a private investor, Yitzhak Shlezinger, the Odessa Committee and the First London Ahuza society. This land became the core of Karkur, Moshav Gan Hashomron and Kibbutz Ein Shemer. Until actual settlement began, the area was guarded by Hashomer, which planted eucalyptus trees to circumvent a Turkish law that allowed the Ottomans to expropriate lands if they were not cultivated for three years. The early settlements did not fare well. Shlezinger went bankrupt and sold his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved throughout history as the main liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today, and serves as the only truly successful example of a dead language that has been revived. It is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still in use, with the other being Aramaic. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon Hakodesh'' (, ) since an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sportsperson
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen. Definitions The word "athlete" is a romanization of the el, άθλητὴς, ''athlētēs'', one who participates in a contest; from ἄθλος, ''áthlos'' or ἄθλον, ''áthlon'', a contest or feat. The primary definition of "sportsman" according to Webster's ''Third Unabridged Dictionary'' (1960) is, "a person who is active in sports: as (a): one who engages in the sports of the field and especially in hunting or fishing." Physiology Athletes involved in isotonic exercises have an increased mean left ventricular end-diastolic volume and are less likely to be depressed. Due to their strenuous physical activities, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
