Yael Arad, Israel’s first-ever Olympic medalist, said Tuesday she wanted to use her new role as a member of the International Olympic Committee to help “build bridges,” and spoke candidly about her thoughts of being away from her country after multiple relatives of hers were murdered in Hamas’s shocking massacre of Israelis last week.
Arad, who won the silver medal in judo at the 1992 Barcelona Games, was one of eight new members voted onto the IOC during the organization’s session meeting in Mumbai.
But there was doubt over whether she would travel to India in light of the intense Israel-Hamas fighting, which has caused many flights to be canceled or disrupted.
Israel declared war on Hamas after more than 1,500 terrorists broke through the fortified Gaza border on October 7 and murdered some 1,300 people, most of them civilians, including babies, children and the elderly. They also kidnapped at least 199 people to the Strip and have fired more than 5,000 rockets at Israeli cities.
Israeli retaliatory airstrikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip have flattened neighborhoods and killed at least 2,750 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, as Israel works to destroy the terror group. Israel has also said its forces killed some 1,500 terrorists in Israeli territory.
“It was very difficult,” Arad told reporters in Mumbai following her election. “I left home with 900 murdered friends, family and the community, innocent people. And now we have already 1,400 murdered from one black Saturday of a horrific terror attack.” Unverified reports have claimed the death toll from the Hamas assault has topped 1,400.
File: Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Abraham Cohen at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, October 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
“I can’t stop thinking about 199 hostages that were kidnapped, babies [aged] four months, four-year-old boys and girls,” Arad continued. “So my heart and my thoughts are with all the families that lost [loved ones], including my family. We lost cousins on both sides.”
“It was very difficult. But I felt that it was my obligation to come here, to show the world that we are still here,” she said. “For me it’s a dream come true to serve here [at the IOC], to be part of these nations.”
Arad, who after her career as an athlete became a coach, businesswoman and sports administrator, explained how she had been visiting hospitals as president of the Israel Olympic Committee.
She said that during a visit to hospitalized civilians injured in the Hamas rampage, fellow Olympic medalist Peter Paltchik, who is also a World Championship medalist in judo, told the patients that “every time we go on the mat or to the field and compete, from now on we do it for you. And when you see our flag on the podium, you know we did it in your name.”
Newly elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, including Israel’s first Olympic medalist Yael Arad (fourth from left), pose for a group picture during the third day of the 141st IOC session in Mumbai on October 17, 2023. (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP)
Arad, 56, wearing a black ribbon, said she had always tried to avoid partisanship during her career.
“I think everybody [who] knows me… knows that I do everything without any religious or political view, always for humanity, always for people,” she said.
“Unfortunately, our neighborhood back in the Middle East — it’s not like this always,” she said, adding that during the IOC summit, she had received “a lot of hugs and also from my friends from the Arab world, and I really appreciate it.”
“We have to learn this lesson that there are inhuman people around the world, terrorists and terror organizations,” she continued. “But this organization [IOC] must show the world that through sports, we build bridges and we give hope to many people, to many conflicts around the world.”
She concluded that while building bridges was important, “we have to always remember that in the bridges that we build, we cannot allow terror.”
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‘It was very difficult’: Yael Arad departs war horrors to get Olympic honor in India - The Times of Israel
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