The performance of the Israeli windsurfing delegation can only be described as one thing a disappointment. It was exciting to see Lee Korsiz scrap and fight the entire week, but we're concluding her Olympic showing with a sour taste in our mouths. I've heard many people say that the weak winds were the reason for her unfortunate finish. In my opinion this isn't an excuse. Her start wasn't good and I immediately knew that she had lost her advantage. In a medal race like this, when you play things safely you send a message to your competitors, and therefore everything about Lee's surfing and conduct was mediocre. It wasn't just the wind. Lee, however, is really just a small part of the story of the overall failure of the Israeli windsurfing team in London. Everyone with a connection to the windsurfing community came into these games with high expectations. We were hoping for at least one medal and we failed. Over the past decade, we have become accustomed to the idea that the windsurfers will salvage the situation, and we were not seeing the truth for what it really was. In Beijing we scraped out with a medal at barely the last second, and even that was by luck. And when you depend on miracles, sometimes they happen and sometimes they don't. I was watching the television yesterday and it was extremely painful for me to see that we again didn't succeed in bringing home a medal. The cruel ending suffered by Lee concluded a pedestrian Olympics for the Israeli delegation. It's also important to mention gymnast Alex Shatilov, swimmer Yakov Tomarkin and sharpshooter Sergey Richter, who performed admirably and together with Lee saved the delegation's honor. The problems began with the declarations made by the delegation heads even before the team left for the games. They crowned the athletes before they landed in London and aimed too high. It's not that declarations of confidence should be avoided before big competitions. I always said what I felt, but I knew that it all depended on me and I never blamed anyone for not doing well. When I knew I was going to face an obstacle I prepared for it and improved the things I was weak at, so that afterward I could not blame anyone but myself. The games are not over yet; the time to find scapegoats will come eventually. In the meantime, we need to calm down and look at these past four years as a whole, in which Israeli windsurfing scored many achievements. To our regret, we didn't see it in London. I think it's too soon to talk about the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In any case, I'm positive that Israeli windsurfing will be able to get back on its feet and send the best crews to race in Brazil. The writer, a former windsurfer, is Israel's first (and only) Olympic gold medalist (Athens, 2004), and also won an Olympic bronze medal (Atlanta, 1996).
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