Swimming

Israeli Swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko Boo’ed by Israeli Crowd on World Championships Podium

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Amid ramped-up security at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, there has been thankful-little pall of the ongoing conflict between Israel and host-nation Qatar at this week’s World Championships hosted in the Qatari capital of Doha. While there has been a general awareness of the tension, and the small Israeli contingent has been accompanied by soldiers among other security measures, the issue has been relatively-dormant without any major incidents.

But the ongoing issues became more obvious in the last individual podium of the meet where Anastasia Gorbenko was interviewed by the on-deck announcer for winning a silver medal after finishing 4:37.36, which was .22 seconds behind the winner Freya Colbert of Great Britain. That was a historic moment for Israel as the country’s first-ever World Aquatics Championships medal in swimming and second-ever in any discipline.

The boos rained down during her interview from the Aspire Dome deck, casting a shadow over the closing moments of the championships, where Gorbenko said that she was “happy to represent Israel.”

SwimSwam’s Aglaia Pezzato, who is at the meet, says that gathered media was told that Gorbenko came through the interview area after completing the on-deck duties, but that neither her or any of her colleagues saw that. They are now awaiting an expected-tension at the medals ceremony – which could have been even more intense if she had won gold and World Aquatics, meaning the Israeli national anthem.

Prior to that, the only signs of conflict were fairly-subtle, if you knew where to listen. There were allegations by Israeli media that the Arabic-language announcer did not say Daria Golovaty’s name or country during walkouts for the 200 backstroke, though the English language announcer did. SwimSwam has been unable to find video of that race to confirm the reports, which initially stated that Golovaty’s name and country were not read at all.

There was also some social media back-and-forth between Israeli open water swimmer Eden Girloanta, who previously trained in the United States at Southern Illinois University. Girloanta took exception with how some Arabic media had described her and her performance, though those posts were Instagram stories, meaning that they have since expired.

The current conflict between Israel and Qatar revolves around Qatar providing diplomatic office space in Doha to Hamas, the organization that sent gunmen into southern Israel on October 7, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis. That arrangement, brokered by the United States, has been criticized by the Israeli government. Doha played host to negotiations earlier in the war that led to the release of many, but not all, Israeli hostages.

Israel sent a small contingent of three pool swimmers to the World Championships. Besides Gorbenko and Golovaty, Denis Loktev also competed. Qatar had 5 athletes compete after having been granted extra slots for non-qualifiers by the World Aquatics bureau.

SwimSwam: Israeli Swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko Boo’ed by Israeli Crowd on World Championships Podium

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