Yona Melnik ( he, יונה מלניק; born 27 May 1949) is an Israeli former

judoka 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【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

and current coach. He is the first Israeli judoka to achieve 8th

dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...

from the

International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation (IJF) was founded in July 1951. The IJF was originally composed of judo federations from Europe and Argentina. Countries from four continents were affiliated over the next ten years. Today the IJF has 200 National ...

Biography

Melnik is Jewish, and was born in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He won the Israeli national championship in judo 12 times between 1968 and 1980 in the welterweight (below 70 kilograms) category, and twice in the open division. He won gold medals in judo at the 1969 Maccabiah Games and at the 1973 Maccabiah Games. He competed for

Israel at the 1976 Summer Olympics Israel competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 28 competitors, 26 men and 2 women, took part in 19 events in 10 sports. Summary Israel sent to the Olympics a football team, that qualified for the second time, and 11 ind ...

in Montréal, Québec, in the half-middleweight category, and tied for 19th place. Melnik subsequently coached the Israeli judo team, and opened a dojo in Petah Tikvah. He co-authored an April 2006 article in ''Strength & Conditioning Journal'' titled "The Ten-Station Judo Ability Test: A Test of Physical and Skill Components."

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* * * Living people Sportspeople from Kassel Jewish Israeli sportspeople Olympic judoka of Israel Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Israel 1949 births Israeli male judoka Judoka at the 1976 Summer Olympics Competitors at the 1969 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1973 Maccabiah Games German emigrants to Israel Maccabiah Games medalists in judo {{Israel-judo-bio-stub