Israeli open water swimmer, giving Ruditywill participate this morning (Friday) for the second time in a row in the Olympic Games, after he was one step away from an Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020, when he finished in the historic fourth place with a result of 1:49:24.9 hours, becoming the Israeli swimmer with the best achievement in the Olympic Games.
Roditi has always loved to swim, and soon realized that long distances are his niche. Loves the challenge, the effort, the pain that comes with swimming long distances, the mental work, and especially loves the open sea. The 25-year-old Roditi was the first open water swimmer to represent Israel in the Olympic Games, after open water swimming joined the games in Beijing 2008, and now he is doing it for the second time in a row.
“I aim to reproduce the achievement from Tokyo, at the very least,” Said Roditi to the Sports Channel’s dispatch to Paris, “Of course I want to get on the podium and win a medal – that’s the biggest dream – and I can even imagine such a moment, but it will be difficult. I know I’m ready and will devour the water.”
In addition to the open water, Roditi is the Israeli champion and record holder for 1,500 meters freestyle. In the two years of the Olympics, Roditi achieved good results in competitions, including the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, held in July, where he finished in eighth place in the open water swimming, which was his record achievement in world championships.
About five months later, November 2023, Roditi suffered a complex injury. The swimmer broke his ankle after, very unluckily, slipping while walking on snow while at a training camp in Italy. The injury cast much doubt on his fitness for the World Championships, the goal competition to achieve the criterium, but he and his team were optimistic.
The swimmer was in a cast for five weeks, at a time when he should be at the height of his physical preparations to achieve the criterion. The professional and medical team decided on a training program that would allow continued training in the water, and it was molded in a material that could be used to enter the water and continue the routine as much as possible. Roditi didn’t think about the injury too much, he knew he had a goal and that was to reach the criterion.
He recovered from the injury well, and managed to secure his place in Paris at the World Championships held in Qatar in February of this year, where he finished in tenth place in open water swimming with 1:48:31.70 hours, after having to finish among the first 13 swimmers in order to win a ticket.
All the competitions held in the Seine River in Paris received unflattering headlines, due to the high and dangerous pollution of the river water in the last year and especially in the last two weeks, which caused the hospitalization of participants in the triathlon competitions, which were even postponed twice in light of the situation. Today, as usual, a 10 km open water swimming race for women was held.
Along with Roditi, the three medalists from Tokyo – the Olympic champion – will jump into the water in the morning Florian Walbrook From Germany, his deputy Kristof Rasovsky The Hungarian and the Italian veteran swimmer Gregorio Paltrineriwho already managed to collect a silver medal from the 1,500 meter final and a bronze medal from the 800 m final in the swimming pool.
