Israel Announces 14 Swimmers, Including 10 Olympians, for World Championships

The Israel Swimming Association has announced a 14 swimmer roster for the upcoming World Championships. The 2022 event will be held from June 18-July 3 in Budapest, Hungary, with the swimming portion running from June 18-June 25.

The roster includes 4 women and 10 men and is one more in each gender than the record-setting 12 swimmer roster that they sent to last summer’s Olympic Games – Israel’s largest-ever Olympic roster in swimming.

10 of the 14 swimmers headed to the World Championships were on that Olympic Team.

Yakov Toumarkin from the men’s team and Andi Murez from the women’s team are the Olympians who will be absent from this year’s World Championships. Toumarkin swam last weekend at a local meet in Netanya where his times of 55.13 and 2:00.12 in the 100 and 200 back were both well short of his personal bests.

Murez has not raced since the ISL regular season concluded in September. Murez, who was raised in the United States, has begun medical school at Tel Aviv University. Last week, she received that school’s first-ever athletic scholarship.

Israel only had only one pool swimmer qualify for a final at last summer’s Olympic Games. That was teen sensation Anastasia Gorbenko, who finished 8th in the 100 back and 10th in the 200 IM in Tokyo.

The country’s top swimmer, she broke her most recent National Record in the the 50 backstroke last weekend in 27.87 at the country’s final qualifying event. She also broke the 50 breaststroke at the Stockholm Swim Cup in April, touching in a time of 30.45. Those are the country’s only long course National Records for women since the Olympic Games.

Several short course records have been set, however, as has a long course men’s record. The country’s breakout swimmer of the European Short Course Championships in November was Kristian Pitschugin. He finished 9th in the 50 breaststroke and 20th in the 100 breaststroke at that meet, both of which are new National Records.

Last weekend, he swam a best time in the long course 100 breaststroke of 1:00.37, which is also a long course National Record.

Among those racing at the World Championships will be the entirety of the men’s 800 free relay roster that was 10th at the Olympics in a new National Record of 7:08.65: Gal CohenTomer FrankelDenis Loktev, and Daniel Namir.

Nine members of the team train in the American collegiate system: Lea Polonsky (Cal) and her brother Ron (Stanford) both just completed their freshmen seasons, as did Gal Cohen (Michigan), Aviv Barzelay (Texas A&M), Bar Soloveychik (Minnesota), Michael Laitorovsky (South Carolina), and Denis Loktev (Louisville). Daniel Namir finished his senior season at Arizona, and Tomer Frankel just finished his sophomore season at Indiana. Of that group, all but Laitarovsky swam at the NCAA Championship meets in March.

Israel has never won a medal at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in any discipline.

Israeli Roster for the 2022 World Championships

Women (4)

Men (10)

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IU Swammer
1 year ago

Tomer Frankel is still at Indiana, right?

Margalis Stan
1 year ago

Do we know what eventd they’re swimming?

PFA
1 year ago

Very solid team. Excited to see if they can bring home some hardware at worlds.

Swimmer
1 year ago

You missed Aviv Barzelay who also advanced out of the prelims in Tokyo. She finished 15th in the 200 back.
Also, Pitschugin’s 100 breast swim was a National Record.

Pitschugin is a Georgia commit, Goldfaden swam collegiately for South Carolina (was a SEC champ in the 100 breast) and Cheurti & Gorbenko train regularly with Swim Elite, so all but Golovaty (who is 17) have a connection to the US 🙂

Swimmer
Reply to  Swimmer
1 year ago

And forgot to add that Gorbenko also swam 27.87 in the 50 back which is also a NR

Pacific Whirl
Reply to  Swimmer
1 year ago

Golovety is 16.

Last edited 1 year ago by Pacific Whirl
Swimmer
Reply to  Pacific Whirl
1 year ago

Thanks, don’t know her exact DOB. I was going by her birth year (2005) which is what FINA uses for WJR and wha the Israeli Swimming Association is using for age group records.

SRBARON
1 year ago

MAZEL TOV!

Dylan
1 year ago

Their 4IM finalist at SC worlds did not qualify?

Hannah
1 year ago

You missed a couple college swimmers. Bar Soloveychik swims for Minnesota and Michael Laitarovsky swims for South Carolina.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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