Who are the Jewish athletes at the Paris 2024 Paralympic games?

The Paralympics are close on the heels of the Olympics this year, and the Israeli delegation is set to include at least 28 impressive athletes competing in a variety of events, from swimming to taekwondo to wheelchair tennis and beyond. Several Jewish athletes from the US and Canada are also set to compete, and we’ve made a list so you know who to root for when the Paris Paralympic Games kick off at the end of the month.

Team Israel

One iconic Paralympics event in which Israeli delegates will be competing is Goalball, a sport designed for athletes with visual impairments, and the Israeli women’s team – including Noa Malka, Lihi Ben David, Roni Ohion, Gal Khamrani, Uri Mizrahi, Elham Mahmid – is returning for the 2024 Games. Ben David, 29, who was born visually impaired, was chosen to be one of Israel’s flagbearers in the opening ceremony.

Lihi Ben David of Team Isreal competes during the Goalball Preliminary Group C game on day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Israel will also be bringing five talented swimmers to the Games this year, including twin brothers Marc and Ariel Malyar, 24. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Marc won three of Israel’s nine medals, taking home the gold in the 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle events and a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke in the S7 disability class. Both brothers were born with cerebral palsy and discovered their talent for swimming whilst receiving hydrotherapy at sports club Ilan Haifa.

Mark Malyar of Team Israel looks on after winning gold medal in Men's 400m Freestyle - S7 final on day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Iyad Shalabi, 37, also of Ilan Haifa, will return to the Paralympic swimming pool after competing in Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo, taking home two gold medals for the 100m and 50m backstroke races in the S1 disability class in the 2020 Games. Shalabi, who was born deaf mute and became a paraplegic after an accident at 13 years old, was the first Arab Israeli citizen to win an individual medal in either the Paralympics or the Olympics.

Gold medalist Iyad Shalabi of Team Israel reacts during the men's 50m Backstroke - S1 medal ceremony on day 9 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Ami Dadaon, 23, is another returning swimming champion, having won gold in Tokyo in the 200m and 50m freestyle and silver in the 150m individual medley in the S4 division. In 2023, Dadaon broke the world record for men’s 100m freestyle at the Para Swimming World Championships in Manchester.

Ami Omer Dadaon reacts after winning the gold medal in the men's 50m Freestyle - S4 final on day 9 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images for New Zealand Paralympic Committee)

Swimmer Veronika Girenko, 26, will be returning for her third Paralympic games to compete in breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle and individual medley in the S3 division.

Israel also boasts an impressive lineup of wheelchair tennis players, including flagbearer Adam Berdichevsky, 41, who survived the October 7 massacre at his home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, where Hamas terrorists killed seven people. Berdichevsky lost his leg in 2007 during a boating accident in Thailand and his since competed in both singles and doubles wheelchair tennis events at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympics.

Israeli paralympic athlete Adam Berdichevsky trains in Tel Aviv. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Fellow tennis player Guy Sasson, 44, competed in the 2020 Paralympics after he became a wheelchair user due to an accident in 2015. Sasson made it to the finals in both singles and doubles during the 2024 Australian Open Grand Slam and is ranked No. 3 tennis player in the world for singles in the quad wheelchairs division.

Guy Sasson plays a forehand in their Quad Wheelchair Singles Final match against Sam Schroder of the Netherlands during the 2024 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Maayan Zikri, 21, will make her Paralympic debut in wheelchair tennis in Paris. Zikir became an amputee at age 10 during an accident while on vacation in the Netherlands and has since played both basketball and tennis in her wheelchair.

Maayan Zikri of Israel plays against Lucy Shuker of Great Britain during day three of the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships at Nottingham Tennis Centre in 2022. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images for LTA)

Sergi Lysov, 20, is another first time Paralympian, though he has been playing tennis since the age of nine. His family immigrated to Israel from Russia in 2019 and in 2022, Lysov won the paralympic Israel Open Championship in singles.

Rowing teammates Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin will make their Paralympics debut in the doubles rowing event. Shahin, 42, who is Druze, was injured during a terrorist attack in 2005 whilst working as a security guard at the Karni checkpoint on the Gaza border. Milfelder, 26, was diagnosed with cancer at 16, and had half of her pelvis removed. The pair won a silver medal in the 2024 Rowing World Cup doubles para-rowing event.

Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin secure a gold medal in Italy's international rowing competition in 2023. (Photo via X)

Rower Shmulik Daniel, who suffered a severe spinal injury while serving in the army in 2005, will compete in his second Paralympics after coming in sixth place in single sculls at the Tokyo Games.

Renowned rower Moran Samuel, 42, represented Israel at the Paralympics in London, Rio and Tokyo, winning a silver medal in 2020 and bronze in 2016. In 2015, Samuel won the Rowing World Championships in single sculls. She became paralysed in her lower body after a spinal stroke in 2006.

Moran Samuel celebrates after winning the Silver Medal in the PR1 Women's Single Sculls Final on day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

Kayaker Talia Eilat, 26, will make her Paralympics debut in kayaking after winning a bronze medal for the Paralympic Israeli team at the 2023 European Championships. Formerly a dancer, Eilat lost the use of her legs after a spinal aneurism during her teenage years.

Talia Eilat. (Photo: Screenshot via X)

Irene Shafir, a GP from Kfar Sirkin, will also make her Paralympic debut in kayaking as a single sculler after winning fourth place in the 2022 European Championships for para-canoeing.

Two-time Paralympic Taekwondo World Champion Assaf Yassur, 22, is another first time competitor in the Paralympic Games. Yassur lost both his hands in an electrocution accident. Adnan Milad, 23, similarly lost a hand after being electrocuted, though the traumatic loss deterred neither athlete from competing in taekwondo tournaments.

Assaf Yassur competes in the European Para Championships in Rotterdam in 2023. (Photo: Israel in Nederland via X)

Badminton player Nina Gorodetsky, 43, won the 2008 European Para-Badminton Championships and the 2018 European Para-Badminton Championships in doubles alongside Amir Levi, 47, and the pair will be competing together again in Paris. Gorodetsky, who immigrated to Israel from Georgia at age 11 and was severely injured in a car accident six years later, was the focus of a documentary called Nina is An Athlete in January of this year. Levi, who was injured during his military service, won the bronze medal for para-badminton in the 2023 European Championship.

Amir Levi. (Photo via Facebook)

Competing in the shooting event will be Yulia Chernoy, who was born with mild cerebral palsy, immigrated to Israel from Kazakhstan at 19 and represented Israel in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. She won bronze in the 50m freestyle prone shooting event at the World Championships in Australia in 2019 and competed as a rower in the 2016 Paralympics.

Hand biker Amit Hasdai won fourth place in the 2023 European World Championships and will represent Israel in the hand bike event during his Paralympic debut in Paris. Hasdai was severely injured during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, nine months into his military service at age 19.

Nadav Levy, who was born with cerebral palsy, is competing in his third Paralympics as a boccia player for Israel, having formerly won gold in the 2023 European Championships.

Nadav Levi of Israel throws a ball during the boccia competition test event for Rio 2016 Paralympic games in 2015. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Team Canada

Para equestrian athlete Jody Schloss, 51, will return for her third Paralympic Games after placing 11th at both the London Paralympics in 2012 and the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020. Schloss was left unable to walk and with a speech disability following a car accident when she was 23. She grew up attending a Jewish day school in Alberta, Canada.

Jody Schloss of Canada waves during the Dressage Individual Championship Test at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

Montreal-born boccia player Alison Levine, 34, will be competing in her second Paralympics after coming fifth in singles BC4 in Rio. Levine, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disorder that causes weakness and spasticity in her muscles, won gold medals in both the singles and pairs boccia events at the 2023 Parapan American Games.

Alison Levine. (Photo: Alison Levine)

Team US

Representing the US at the Paralympics will be Jewish track and field star Ezra Frech, 19, who placed 5th in the high jump event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and 8th in the long jump event. Nearly a month out from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Frech broke his own world record in the high jump at the Team USA Paralympic trials. The Los Angeles native was born without his left knee and shin and with only one finger on his left hand, but used his differences to become an advocate for adaptive sports. His mom is a Persian-Jewish actor from Iran.

Ezra Frech competes in the Men 100 M 42.63 Final on Day 3 of the 2024 US Paralympics Team Trials on 20 July, 2024 in Miramar, Florida. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Also representing the US in Paris are table tennis players Ian Seidenfeld, 23, and Tahl Leibovitz, 49, both of whom are returning Paralympic champions. Seidenfeld, who was born with pseudoachondroplasia, won a gold medal in the men’s table tennis singles C6 event at the 2020 Paralympics.

Table Tennis athlete Ian Seidenfeld poses for a portrait during the 2024 Team USA Media Summit on 17 April, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Leibovitz won a gold medal in men’s singles C7 during his first Paralympic Games in 1996 and won bronze in the same event during the Paralympics in Athens in 2004. The Games in Paris will be his seventh Paralympics qualification.