Jews make an impact on sports every single day, and they made some big ones in 2024.
Record-setting performances, international glory, and breaching previously-unchartered territories defined 2024 for Jewish athletics around the world — accomplishments that will live forever in the spirit of Jewish athletics.
I wish I could wax poetically about them all, but life has limitations. In an attempt to help the historians of tomorrow, I have accepted the challenge of whittling down the top-10 Jewish sports moments of 2024.
There was a lot to choose from. Selection was not easy – difficult enough that my indecisiveness frustrated me into forfeiting a ranking. So, I present these moments in no particular order and leave the nitpicking to you, the righteous reader. Please forgive me.
Israel secures 35% of all-time medal count in Paris
Thirty-two years ago in Barcelona, Yael Arad and Oren Smadja each reached the podium in judo, the first medals in Israeli Olympic history. Heading into Paris, Israel had collected 13 medals in all the Olympics it had competed in.
Read more: Meet the Jewish and Israeli Olympians who won a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics
The Jewish State experienced its best Olympics to date in 2020 with two golds and four medals overall. In 2024, it nearly doubled its medal output.
Tom Reuveny claimed the country’s sole gold in Paris, reigning supreme in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing event exactly 20 years after Gal Fridman, his coach, secured Israel’s first-ever Olympic gold in Athens. Sharon Kantor won silver in the women’s iQFoil windsurfing competition, truly putting Israel on the map in the sport.
The success didn’t stop there. Gymnast Artem Dolgopyat followed up his 2020 gold in floor exercise with a silver in Paris, asserting himself as the first Israeli athlete to medal in back-to-back Games. The Israeli rhythmic gymnastics team also claimed silver in the all-around team competition. Judokas Raz Hershko and Inbar Lanir both took silver in their respective events, and fellow judoka Peter Paltchik tossed in a bronze.
That’s seven medals in total, ballooning Israel’s historic tally to 20. If this is a trend, expect something big from the Israelis in Los Angeles.
Jessica & Noemie Fox make history
Jessica Fox, 30, cemented herself as the most decorated Olympic canoe slalom competitor ever with two gold medals, one in kayak slalom and one in canoe slalom in Paris. The now six-time Olympic medalist was also one of Australia’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony and has reached immortal status in her sport.
As if that wasn’t enough, her little sister, Noemie, upped the ante. She captured the inaugural gold in kayak cross, the first of her career. The 27-year-old’s triumph made her one half of the first Jewish siblings to win gold at the same Olympics since 1964.
Amit Elor keeps it going
The daughter of Israeli parents, American wrestler Amir Elor brought her five-year winning streak with her to Paris. She left with it, too.
Elor took gold in the women’s 68-kilogram weight class in her Olympic debut. The 20-year-old is now the youngest-ever American wrestler to claim a gold medal. The wrestler has experienced plenty of personal hardships since her rise within the sport, including the loss of family members and run-ins with anti-Semitism, making her victory that much sweeter.
Max Fried signs biggest deal in Jewish baseball history
Among the most coveted of prizes in this winter’s free agency frenzy, pitcher Max Fried capitalized in a major way on his eight seasons in Atlanta when he inked an eight-year, $218 million deal to become a New York Yankee.
In signing the contract, the 2021 World Series champ became the highest-paid Jewish baseball player ever, eclipsing Alex Bregman’s 2019 extension with the Houston Astros by more than $100 million. Fried also became the highest-paid left-handed pitcher in MLB history.
A two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner, the 30-year-old has a career ERA of 3.07, struck out 863 batters, and pitched a total of 884.1 innings since his MLB start in 2017.
All-Jewish battery highlights Jewish achievements in the sport
On August 10, the Phillies played the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a four-game series in Phoenix. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Philadelphia made a change at the mound, subbing in Jewish pitcher Max Lazar for his big-league debut. Jewish catcher Garrett Stubbs remained behind home plate, initiating the ninth-ever all-Jewish battery in MLB history.
Such a thing has become more common over time. It was the third all-Jewish MLB battery since 2021 and sixth since 2006, greatly outpacing the three occurrences in the 100-plus years of prior MLB history.
This instance was even more noteworthy than most. In the 8th inning, Lazar faced Joc Pederson, a Jewish MLB veteran. A Jewish pitcher threw to a Jewish catcher against a Jewish batter – not a bad start to a minyan.
First known Orthodox Jewish player takes college football field
When Sam Salz dedicated himself to walking onto the football team at Texas A&M, he knew it would be an uphill climb. But that didn’t stop the 5-foot-6, 160-pound Orthodox Jew.
After 11 months of practicing alone, he found a way to make the practice squad as a wide receiver. Salz’s probability to ever see the field was slim, especially because most college football games are played on Saturday, but at least he was on the team. Then in one of the final games of his senior year, it happened: With 42 seconds left in a rout of New Mexico State, Salz was sent onto the field for a kick off. It was not only his first appearance for Texas A&M but his first football game action of any kind, at any level.
It also made him the first known Orthodox Jewish player to step onto a Division I field. It took two years of being on the team before his opportunity came, but Salz had his moment to put observant Jewish football players on the map.
To learn more about Jews dominating college football, check out Unpacked’s article on BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff.
Jewish defensemen dominate the NHL
It’s no longer a novelty for a Jewish hockey player to excel in the NHL, let alone reach an NHL roster. That truth was never clearer than in the 2023-24 season.
Quinn Hughes, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, was awarded the 2023-24 James Norris Memorial Trophy, given annually to the league’s top defenseman. Not only was it the first Norris of his career, he also became the first Vancouver Canuck to accomplish the feat. His 92 points led all defenseman for the season, and his 75 assists were the fourth-most among all NHL skaters.
Not far behind in the Norris standings was fellow Jewish defenseman Adam Fox. The Rangers player finished fourth in the race for the distinction after contributing 56 assists and 73 points to his team’s cause. Fox previously won the award for the 2020-21 season and is a three-time All-Star.
Hughes and Fox made up only a slice of the influential Jewish players making a difference in the NHL, but to have both of them among the top-four vote-getters for the Norris and one of them win is something special.
Max Homa sets PGA Tour drive record
Jewish golfer Max Homa made a lasting impression on the PGA Tour in January. In the third round of The Sentry at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii, he smashed his drive on the 7th hole 477 yards, a single yard further than Davis Love III achieved on the same course in 2004. Homa now holds the record for the longest drive of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink Era, which began in 2003.
It is yet another feather in the golfer’s cap. Since turning pro in October 2013, Homa has six PGA Tour wins, two top-10 finishes in major events, and a third-place achievement at the 2024 Masters Tournament. He also has one European Tour and two Korn Ferry Tour victories. Prior to joining the Tour, Homa won the individual 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship as a student at Cal-Berkeley.
March Meshuga
Last March, some Jewish college basketball coaches saw great success.
Both the men’s and women’s tournaments had a Jewish coach reach a Regional Final. Jon Scheyer led Duke men’s basketball to its 24th Elite Eight appearance and his first as a head coach, while Lindsay Gottlieb had USC women’s hoops in its first Elite Eight since 1994 in her second showing in the round in her career.
March also spelled a beautiful end to a wonderful career for Keith Dambrot, LeBron James’s former high school coach who returned Duquesne to the Big Dance for the first time in 47 years. In the first round, his No. 11-seeded Dukes upset No. 6 BYU, 71-67, another first for the program in 47 years.
Domantas Sabonis, the double-double machine
In a March 25 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis recorded 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists – his 25th triple-double of the 2023-24 season. More notably, it was the 54th-straight time the Lithuanian-American had registered a double-double in an NBA outing.
Only four players in the league’s history have had longer double-double streaks than the one Sabonis built last season, which grew to 61, and no one has kept it up that long since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976.
Sabonis was not born Jewish, but his marriage to a Jewish woman inspired him to convert in 2023.
