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Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat wins Olympic gold medal in Tokyo Games
The Israeli competed fourth, netting a score of 14.933. This is Israel's first gold medal in Tokyo, and second in history.
Sports
Israeli artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat made history on Sunday, winning a Olympic gold medal in the finals of the men's floor exercise at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with a score of 14.933. It was the Olympic second gold medal won by Israel since it was established in 1948.
Spaniard Rayderley Miguel Zapata received a score identical to Dolgopyat, but ranked beneath him due to the higher difficulty level of Dolgopyat's exercise, netting only a silver medal.
China's Xiao Ruoteng took the bronze for his third medal of the Tokyo Games.
Dolgopyat told reporters after winning that "I don't really have the words, I am still in heaven. I want to say thank you to everyone, I love everyone."
Dolgopyat added that "my floor exercise was not the best, in the qualifiers I did better. I was very stressed that it would not even be enough for a medal, but everyone was excited and made mistakes and that was enough for me and I am very happy."
Dolgopyat will be heading home with NIS 500,000 in prize money for his new gold medal.
"Artem doesn't even understand what an achievement it is, it's something inconceivable to Israeli sports," said Alex Shtilov, Dolgopyat's teammate on the Israeli gymnastics team.