Shahar Tzuberi (or Zubari, he, שחר צוברי; born September 1, 1986) is an Israeli
windsurfer
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 ga ...
and
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
bronze medalist, surfing in the "Neil Pryde"
RS:X discipline. He is a nephew of
Gad Tsobari
Gad Tsobari ( he, גד צברי sometimes Tsabari, Zobari, or Zabari; born 30 January 1944) is an Israeli-born light-flyweight freestyle wrestler and a member of Israel's 1972 Olympic team. He finished 12th (of 50) in his event, and was considere ...
, the 1972 Olympic wrestler who escaped from Arab terrorists during the
Munich massacre
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian people, Palestinian militant organization Black September Organization, Black September, who i ...
. He is a three-time Olympian.
Early life
Tzuberi was born in
Eilat
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 ...
,
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 ...
, to a family of both
Mizrahi Jewish
Mizrahi Jews ( he, יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () or ''Mizrachi'' () and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained i ...
(
Yemenite-Jewish) and
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: , singu ...
descent. He began surfing at the age of 7, encouraged by his father, Ze'ev "Poodle" Tzuberi. After winning a number of local surfing competitions, he began training professionally. Tzuberi joined the
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 servic ...
in 2005 and received an "Athlete of Excellence" status, allowing him to compete in international competitions. He went through
recruit training
Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique deman ...
in the
Zikim base and then became a
quartermaster
Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...
in the
Israeli navy
The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...
base in Eilat, his hometown.
His cousin is Israeli surfer Hadar Heller.
Windsurfing career
Early years
Tzuberi's first achievement was a silver medal in the 2000
Windsurfing World Championships The Windsurfing World Championships is an international sailing competition organized by World Sailing held since 1980, now annually. Men
Mistral Class
RS:X Class
Women
Mistral Class
RS:X Class
See also
*Sailing World Championships
*List ...
for boys. With the Olympics in mind, Tzuberi began mastering the
Mistral
Mistral may refer to:
* Mistral (wind) in southern France and Sardinia
Automobiles
* Maserati Mistral, a Maserati grand tourer produced from 1963 until 1970
* Nissan Mistral, or Terrano II, a Nissan 4×4 produced from 1993 until 2006
* Microp ...
windsurfer (which was the windsurfer model used in the Olympic Games at the time). In 2002, Tzuberi won the under-17 World Championships, and in 2004, he won the silver medal in the Youth World Championships held in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
.
In 2004, the
ISAF
' ps, کمک او همکاري '
, allies = Afghanistan
, opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda
, commander1 =
, commander1_label = Commander
, commander2 =
, commander2_label =
, commander3 =
, command ...
decided to replace the Olympic windsurfing discipline model from the Mistral surfboard to the "Neil Pryde"
RS:X surfboard. The majority of Olympic windsurfers found it hard to adjust to the new model, as they were already used to years of sailing on the Mistral. However, this provided younger surfers, such as Tzuberi, with a chance to close the gaps in experience and catch up with the veteran windsurfers.
At the beginning of 2006, in the first Israeli windsurfing competition held using the RS:X model, he finished first, while two-time Israeli Olympic medalist
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 ...
finished in 4th place.
Tzuberi's international results:
* 2007 – Pre-Olympic championship silver medal finish in France.
* 2007 – 6th-place finish in the European Championships held in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
.
* 2007 – 8th-place finish in the World Championships held in Portugal.
At the beginning of 2008, he won the bronze medal at the
Windsurfing World Championships The Windsurfing World Championships is an international sailing competition organized by World Sailing held since 1980, now annually. Men
Mistral Class
RS:X Class
Women
Mistral Class
RS:X Class
See also
*Sailing World Championships
*List ...
held in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
, New Zealand.
Beijing Olympics, 2008
Tzuberi competed for
Israel at the 2008 Olympics
Israel competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. This was Israel's fourteenth participation in the Summer Olympics.
Israel sent 43 athletes to compete in Beijing, the largest Israeli delegation in Olympic history, with the previou ...
, and entered the 2008 Olympic Games under the shadow of
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 ...
, a two-time Olympic medalist for Israel. He was ranked outside the top 10 coming into the tournament, but upgraded to an overall 1st place after the first 4 (of the total 11) events, finishing 1st and 3rd respectively. In the following 4 events, Tzuberi's best finish was a 6th place, in between 17th, 18th and 19th-place finishes – results that seemed to end his hopes of an Olympic medal. He then won the 9th and placed 4th in the 10th event, thus re-entering the medal race as 4th place overall.
Just before the final medal race was about to start, Greek windsurfer
Nikolaos Kaklamanakis
Nikolaos "Nikos" Kaklamanakis ( el, Νικόλαος Κακλαμανάκης, born August 19, 1968, in Athens) is the Greece, Greek Gold-medal winner who lit the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was ...
, who was next to Tzuberi in the start line, was disqualified for an attempted
head start. Tzuberi thought the judges disqualified him as well (in fact they did not), and decided to play it safe by "re-entering" the race and returned to the start line. By the time Tzuberi started surfing, he was approximately 1 minute behind the entire fleet.
Tzuberi had to place 4 places ahead of one of the top-3 surfers in order to win a medal and he accomplished just that by coming back from last place and finishing in an incredible 2nd place, and 3rd overall, while Great Britain's
Nick Dempsey
Nicholas Charles Dempsey (born 13 August 1980 in Norwich) is a British windsurfer, who lives in Poole, Dorset. He became the first man to win three Olympics medals in windsurfing when he won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, adding to a silver ...
lost his medal by placing 7th – an overall 4th-place finish.
Tzuberi's results were:
(''Notes:'' the worst race score is omitted. The medal race score is doubled.)
Controversy
After the Olympics, Tzuberi made a number of offensive comments about the Chinese in an interview with ''
Yediot Ahronot
''Yedioth Ahronoth'' ( he, יְדִיעוֹת אַחֲרוֹנוֹת, ; lit. ''Latest News'') is a national daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Founded in 1939 in British Mandatory Palestine, ''Yedioth Ahronoth'' is the largest paid n ...
'', including what the ''
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
'' described as a "scatological expletive" and criticizing Chinese traditions, speech and food, such as "After a month and a half I couldn't look at Chinese people any more", "Their traditions are bizarre and even their speech is weird". Tzuberi later apologized, and said “this was a slip of the tongue, I retract what I said.” The
Israeli Sport and Culture Minister Raleb Majadele
Raleb Majadele ( ar, غالب مجادلة, Levantine Arabic: ; he, ראלב מג'אדלה, ; also spelt Ghaleb Majadele, born 5 April 1953) is an Israeli Arab politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party in three spells ...
condemned Tzuberi's remarks to the Chinese Ambassador, calling the remarks "despicable", and saying they "do not reflect the views of the Israeli people toward the Chinese people."
London Olympics, 2012
Competing for
Israel at the 2012 Olympics in windsurfing, he came in 19th.
Rio de Janeiro Olympics, 2016
Tzuberi competed for
Israel at the 2016 Olympics
Israel competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's sixteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics. The Olympic Committee of Israel confirmed a team of 47 athletes, 22 men and 25 wo ...
, his third appearance in the Olympic Games. He did not qualify for the finals.
Achievements
See also
*
List of Olympic medalists in sailing
This is a list of Olympic medalists in sailing.
Olympic medalist by discipline
* List of Olympic medalists in sailing by discipline
Olympic medalist by class
* List of Olympic medalists in sailing by class
Notes
References
*
{{Sailin ...
*
*
List of Jews in sports
This list of Jewish athletes in sports contains athletes who are Jewish and have attained outstanding achievements in sports. The topic of Jewish participation in sports is discussed extensively in academic and popular literature (See also: Lis ...
*
List of Israeli Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews
This is a list of notable Mizrahi Jews and Sephardi Jews in Israel, including both original immigrants who obtained Israeli citizenship and their Israeli descendants.
Traditionally the terms "Mizrahi Jews" and "Sephardi Jews" were used as all en ...
*
Sports in Israel
Sport in Israel plays an important role in Israeli culture and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport (Israel), Ministry of Culture and Sport. The most popular sports in Israel have traditionally been Association football (mainly) and ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Meet the Olympic team: Shahar Zubariat ''
Ynetnews
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tzuberi, Shahar
1986 births
Living people
Israeli people of Ashkenazi descent
Israeli people of Yemeni-Jewish descent
People from Eilat
Israeli windsurfers
Jewish sailors (sport)
Olympic bronze medalists for Israel
Olympic medalists in sailing
Olympic sailors of Israel
Israeli male sailors (sport)
Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – RS:X
Sailors at the 2012 Summer Olympics – RS:X
Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – RS:X
Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Israeli Mizrahi Jews
Israeli Ashkenazi Jews