Athletes Who Gave Their Nation Its Only Gold

Gal Fridman (Israel):

He is the lone athlete from Israel to win two Olympic medals.  More importantly, he is Israel’s only gold medalist at the Games. Fridman won a bronze in men’s windsurfing at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Eight years later, in Athens, he went distant, winning the same event. In 1995, he won the ASA Boardsailing Championship in Eilat, Israel. In 1999, he won the International ASA Windsurfing Championship in Eilat. Despite his form in the previous years, he failed to qualify to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Claudia Poll (Costa Rica):

The tiny Central American nation of Costa Rica has so far only won four medals. Coincidentally, all the medals have been won by the by two sisters. While Silvia Poll won Costa Rica its first medal- silver in the 200 meters freestyle event at the Seoul Olympics, it was younger sister Claudia Poll who went a step further. In women’s 200 meters freestyle event in the Atlanta Games in 1996, Cludia bested favorites Dagmer Hase of Germany to win a very first gold for her country. Four years later she won a bronze in the 400 meter freestyle, her third Olympic medal having won silver in Seoul. In 1997, she was named by Swimming World Magazine as the female swimmer of the year.

Jefferson Perez (Equador):

Ecuador has so far competed in Olympics a dozen times, winning two medals for his efforts. The Cuenca native won the gold medal, Ecuador’s first and only, in the men’s 20 km walk at the Atlanta Games in 1996 ahead of Russia’s Ilya Markov. He could only finish fourth in the events in both Sydney and Athens. However at Beijing games four years back, Perez did pick up silver, losing out to another Russian, Valeriy Brochin. In 2003 World Champions in France, Perez also set the world best performance in race walking.