Jewish athletes to watch in Beijing
With the 2022 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony on tonight, here are some Jewish athletes to look out for during the Games in Beijing.
The most well-known is probably 27-year-old American figure skater Jason Brown, who competed in the 2014 Sochi Games, winning bronze in the team event.
He missed out on the 2018 Winter Olympics, but qualified for Beijing after skating to the theme from Schindler’s List.
Still in figure skating, Israel will be represented by Ukraine-born Alexei Bychenko for the third Games in a row. At the last Winter Olympics, he placed 11th in the solo men’s.
In the pairs competition, 19-year-old American-born Israeli Hailey Kops will make her Games debut, alongside 33-year-old Olympian Evgeni Krasnopolski, Israel’s flagbearer.
In speed skating, Vladislav Bykanov will compete for Israel in his third Winter Olympics, while American Emery Lehman will also enjoy his third consecutive Games.
Fellow American Taylor Gold is a 28-year-old snowboarder heading to his second Winter Olympics.
Noa and Barnabas Szollos – known as Israel’s “ski siblings” – were born in Budapest, and now train in Austria. When 16, Noa won two medals at the Youth Winter Olympics. Now 18, she and her 23-year-old brother will both ski for Israel in Beijing.
Canada’s men’s ice hockey team will be the “most Jewish” non-Israeli team.
The team includes 26-year-old Jewish player for the Toronto Marlies, Josh Ho-Sang; 20-year-old Northeastern University Huskies goalkeeper Devon Levi; and 33-year-old former NHL player Jason Demers.
The USA men’s Olympic ice hockey team has one Jewish player, 31-year-old David Warsofsky, who has played for four different NHL teams, but currently plays for German club ERC.
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