the heart is Broken. The hero of Israel, the late Omer Samadja, the son of Oren Samadja, fell in battle in the Gaza Strip and he was only 25 years old. The tragedy that befell the Samadja family caused the entire Israeli sport to unite around one of the most beloved people in Israeli sports, the Olympic medalist and the one who won As the coach of the men’s team also in the medals.
Earlier this year, Smedja faced another grief, when his father, Maurice Smedja, a judo legend and one of the founders of Israeli judo, passed away at the age of 91. Tragedy has now befallen Smedja, when in just over a month the Olympic Games will take place, When in an interview that took place last March for the Sports Channel, he told about the difficulties for an artist during the war.
“On a personal level, the truth is that this was one of the most difficult years in my life,” he said in March, “My father passed away, the war started, 3 members of my family were in the army and there was uncertainty. It totally messed me up. I also had to reach some kind of stable ground, and I was patient in every such situation. I’m like an onion, I have so many shells, so many protections from everything that happens around. I have the patience not to exclude myself from my goals and those of the team. And at that time it helped me.’
The Sports Channel shares in the grief of the Samadja family and sends reinforcements.
