You can take the man out of Australia, but you can’t take Australia out of the man. That is my conclusion during the first Olympic Games that I have lived outside of my birthplace.
During the past few days, my wife has had to put up with cries of ‘Go, Thorpedo, go!” and “You littl’ ripper!”, as I have allowed my inner sports nut to resurface. I am sure she had never seen platform diving before the other night, as we watched the Australian pair of Mathew Helm & Robert Newbery win the bronze medal.
“But you are Israeli now”, she tells me, with an almost pleading tone to her voice. “I am still Australian”, I reply. “AND Israeli. Ozraeli, if you will.”
Being Ozraeli enables me to follow both Australia and Israel in the Olympics. But the fact remains that I will be hearing the Australian national anthem playing far more than the Hatikvah. If I was to solely follow Israel, my Olympic experience would be depressing. Should I not be allowed to derive some pleasure from these games?! Besides, I lived the vast majority of my life in Australia, and fanatically followed all the Australian sporting teams. I can honestly say that if an Australian team ever lost an event or game, it would affect my mood for the rest of the day, if not week. Once a diehard Australian sports fan, always a diehard Australian sports fan.
Having said that, if Israel were to win a gold medal, I would be elated. As would the entire country…except those segments who would rather that the only event Israel competed in was the Dead Sea sprint.
Update: Israel have a good chance of a medal in the men’s Mistral sailboard race. And our sole table tennis competitor has a chance of a medal – as long as she can avoid better competitors.
Israel’s sole table tennis competitor, Marina Kravchenko, who said before the competition that her expectation was to advance one round – on condition that she avoided Asian contestants ñ on Sunday made it through to the last 32 of the competitors, after beating the former European champion Otilia Badescu of Romania 11-6, 11-9, 4-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6.
Kravchenko has managed to avoid the Asians in the next round as well, but will play against Tamara Boros of Croatia, the world No. 6 and the highest ranked, non-Asian player in the Games.
