Yarden Gerbi (or Jerbi, he, ירדן ג'רבי; born July 8, 1989) is an Israeli former judoka world champion. She won an Olympic bronze medal competing for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Women's 63 kg Judo. Gerbi won the gold medal at the

2013 World Judo Championships The 2013 World Judo Championships were held at the Ginásio do Maracanãzinho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 26 August to 1 September. Schedule ''All times are local ( UTC−3).'' Medal summary Medal table Men's events Women's events R ...

in the -63 kg (139 lbs.) category.Sinai, Allon
"Israel's Gerbi takes gold at Judo World Championships"
'' Jerusalem Post'', August 29, 2013. Retrieved on August 30, 2013. She won the Israeli championship five times by the age of 24, and was a silver medalist in the

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

Personal life

Gerbi was born in

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( he, כְּפַר סָבָא), officially Kefar Sava, is a city in the Sharon region, of the Central District of Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-largest city in Israel. The population of Kfar Saba i ...

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 Sephardic Jewish ( Tunisian-Jewish) descent from

Djerba Djerba (; ar, جربة, Jirba, ; it, Meninge, Girba), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at , in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. It had a population of 139,544 ...

. She was raised and also currently resides in Netanya, Israel. Her nicknames are Jordan, Gerb, and Denush. She attended the

Open University of Israel The Open University of Israel ( he, האוניברסיטה הפתוחה, ''Ha-Universita ha-Ptuha'') is a distance-education university in Israel. It is one of ten public universities in Israel recognized by the Council of Higher Education (C ...

, studying Economics and Management.

Judo career

Early career

Gerbi, who began practicing judo at age 6, trains with club Meditav Netanya. Shani Hershko, former coach of the Israeli women's national judo team, has been her trainer since childhood. Gerbi twice won the Israeli judo championship. She won the silver medal in the

2012 European Judo Championships The 2012 European Judo Championships were held at the Traktor Ice Arena Traktor Ice Arena named after Valery Konsantinovich Belousov (), commonly shortened to Traktor Ice Arena, is an indoor sporting arena located in Chelyabinsk, Russia. I ...

, and bronze in the

2013 European Judo Championships The 2013 European Judo Championships were held in Budapest, Hungary from 25 to 28 April 2013. Medal overview Men Women Medal table Results overview Men –60 kg –66 kg –73 kg –81 kg –90 kg –100 kg +100 kg ...

. In 2007, she won the Israel Championships. In 2008, Gerbi won the Israel Championships and the Under-23 Israel Championships, and took third in the Under-20 category in the European Championships. In 2009, she won the Israel Championships and the Belo Horizonte World Cup, placed second in the

, and took third place in the Qingdao Grand Prix. In 2010, she came in second in the Qingdao Grand Prix, the Baku World Cup and the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

World Cup, third in the

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

World Cup, and came in 7th place at the Tokyo World Championships. In 2011, she won the Israeli Championships, came in second in the San Salvador World Cup and the Miami World Cup, third in the Moscow Grand Slam and the World Masters Baku, and fifth in the

2011 European Judo Championships The 2011 European Judo Championships were held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, from 21 to 24 April 2011. Medal overview Men Women Medal table Results overview Men –60 kg –66 kg –73 kg –81 kg –90 kg ...

. However, she was eliminated in the second round of the 2011 world championship and did not qualify for Israel's 2012 Olympic team. In 2012, she won the

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...

World Cup and the Israel Championships, took second in the

in Russia, and took third in the Düsseldorf Grand Prix. In 2013, prior to the world championships she won the Baku Grand Slam and the Moscow Grand Slam, took second in the Samsun Grand Prix, third in the Düsseldorf Grand Prix and the

. She achieved a world ranking of No. 1 in May 2013.

2013 World Champion

In August 2013, at the age of 24, she won the gold medal at the

in Rio de Janeiro in the category -63 kg (139 lbs.), defeating each of her five opponents unconditionally. She defeated No. 2-ranked Clarisse Agbegnenou of France, the European champion, in the final by dislocating her shoulder and rendering her unconscious with a

chokehold A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza ( ja, 絞技, translation=constriction technique) is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking)''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' ( ...

in 43 seconds. She recorded an

ippon is the highest score a fighter can achieve in a Japanese martial arts ''ippon-wazari'' contest, usually kendo, judo, karate or jujitsu. In Judo In Judo, an ippon may be scored for a throw, a pin, a choke or a jointlock. For throws, the four ...

in each of her five fights on the way to the championship. Commenting on the reaction from Israelis to her championship, she said: "I received three marriage proposals." Gerbi became the first Israeli to win a gold medal at the Judo World Championships. Israelis

Yael Arad Yael Arad ( he, יעל ארד; born May 1, 1967) is an Israeli judoka. She was the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal. She is widely recognized as one of Israel's most successful athletes and is credited with bringing judo into the athletic ma ...

(1991 – bronze, 1993 – silver), Oren Smadja (1995 – silver), and Ariel Ze’evi (2001 – silver) had each previously won a silver medal in the championships, and Alice Schlesinger had most recently won a bronze medal in 2009; also Olympic medals, which is Gerbi's next goal, have been won by Arad (Barcelona 1992 – silver), Smadja (Barcelona 1992 – bronze), and Ze’evi (Athens 2004 – bronze). She was voted Israeli Sports Personality of the Year in 2013 by the readers of ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper ...

''.

2014–15

Cachola (POR) vs Gerbi (ISR) at the bronze final of the 2015 European Games

At the 2014 World Judo Championships in the Russian city of

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

, Gerbi won the silver medal after losing by an ippon to Frenchwoman Clarice Agbegnenou in the final in the under-63 kilo category. In December 2014, she was named Israeli Sportswoman of the Year. In 2015, she won a bronze medal at the 2015 European Games. On 17 October 2015, Gerbi won the bronze medal in the Paris Grand Slam after defeating Miho Minei from Japan. Two weeks later on 31 October 2015, she won the bronze again, this time in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, after defeating Juul Franssen from the Netherlands.

Rio Olympics and retirement

On 9 August 2016, Gerbi won a bronze medal for her native Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(shared with

Anicka van Emden Anicka van Emden (born 10 December 1986) is a Dutch retired judoka who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (shared with Yarden Gerbi). She also won bronze medals at the 2011 and 2013 World Judo Championships. Since ...

). Prior to her win, she was ranked among the top 14 eligible female judokas in her category as of May 30, 2016. After losing to hometown Brazilian Mariana Silva in the quarter-finals, she won her next two

repechage Repechage (; french: repêchage, "fishing out, rescuing") is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. A well known example is the wild car ...

fights to win the bronze medal. Gerbi took part in the torch lighting ceremony at the

2017 Maccabiah Games The 2017 Maccabiah Games ( he, משחקי המכביה 2017), also referred to as the 20th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-20), were the 20th edition of the Maccabiah Games. They took place from 4 to 17 July 2017, in Israel. The Maccabiah ...

on July 6, 2017. On October 2, Gerbi announced her retirement from Judo.

Medals

Sources:

References

External links

* ''(archived)'' * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerbi, Yarden 1989 births Living people Israeli Sephardi Jews Israeli female judoka Open University of Israel alumni Sportspeople from Netanya Israeli people of Tunisian-Jewish descent Maccabiah Games silver medalists for Israel Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Maccabiah Games medalists in judo European Games bronze medalists for Israel European Games medalists in judo Olympic judoka of Israel Judoka at the 2015 European Games World judo champions Olympic bronze medalists for Israel Judoka at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in judo Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Jewish Israeli sportspeople Israeli Mizrahi Jews Survivor (Israeli TV series) contestants