Ehud "Udi" Vaks ( he, אהוד "אודי" וקס; born 27 June 1979) is an Israeli
judoka.
Vaks won a
bronze medal at the 1998
under-20 World Judo Championships in the under 60 kg weight class.
2004 Olympics
In the
2004 Summer Olympics, competing in the half lightweight 66 kg weight class, Vaks was scheduled to fight
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian competitor
Arash Miresmaeili in the first round. Miresmaeili was disqualified from the competition because he was above the allowable weight limit for his class.
It is widely believed that Miresmaili deliberately set out to be disqualified for political reasons, which is supported by his own comments: “Although I have trained for months and was in good shape I refused to fight my Israeli opponent to sympathise with the suffering of the
people of Palestine and I do not feel upset at all."
Comments from Iranian officials also supported this view. The Iranian state news agency quoted Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami as saying that Miresmaeili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories," and that the nation considered him to be "the champion of the 2004 Olympic Games."
Iranian Olympic team chairman Nassrollah Sajadi told the ''Sharq'' newspaper that the government should give the athlete a $115,000 bonus for his actions, the same amount it gave to gold medalists.
Miresmaeili's disqualification resulted in Vaks being awarded a bye into the 2nd round. He was defeated by
Algeria
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Amar Meridja
Amar Meridja (born 17 March 1976) is an Algerian judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔 ...
.
See also
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Judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place in the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall and featured 368 judoka competing for 14 gold medals with seven different weight categories in both the men's and women's competitions. Japan dominated the event by t ...
*
List of select Jewish judokas
*
List of Israelis
*
Arash Miresmaeili#Athens Olympic Games; controversy
References
External links
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1979 births
Living people
Israeli male judoka
Olympic judoka of Israel
Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Jewish martial artists
Israeli Ashkenazi Jews
{{Israel-judo-bio-stub