Israel Matzav

Israel's winter Olympians

CNN (of all media outlets) covers Israel's ice dancers, Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky, who actually now spend most of their time in the US training. Our only regulation ice rink is in Metulla (I actually know some guys who drive up there to play hockey on Thursday nights - it's about three hours from Jerusalem), which is on the Lebanese border.

The Zaretskys were born in Minsk, Belarus, under the former Soviet Union. Their family decided to leave the country as soon as it was possible and moved to Israel. They settled in Metula, a city near the Lebanese border, which boasts the country's only regulation size ice rink.

Metula held a number of challenges for the two young skaters. The Zaretskys often found themselves with little time on the ice, because they had to share it with other skaters and hockey players, who would come to the rink to practice.

"The ice time was not enough. We had 45 minutes a day and we need much more than that," Sasha Zaretsky said. "Usually one practice here is an hour and a half, so it's not enough to become an Olympic athlete."

Living and practicing so close to Lebanon's border also meant dealing with warfare and instability. They had to evacuate the area several times, and the ice rink itself was bombed three times while they were living there.

Despite the difficulties, the pair continued training under their mother's tutelage until she had taught them everything she knew.

"Our mom was coaching us until we reached the moment where she said, 'OK, I cannot give you anymore,' " Roman Zaretsky said. " 'You need to go somewhere else if you want to move on.' "

So in 2001, when Roman was 17 and Sasha 13, they left home for the United States, where, for the second time in their lives, they had to adjust to a new culture and learn a new language. They decided to settle in New Jersey, one of several East Coast states renowned for its excellent skating coaches.

Read the whole thing.

The only way they are going to make skating more popular in Israel would be to win a medal and then come back here and open a school with a rink. But the Russians - with whom it's very popular - have been here en masse for twenty years, and that hasn't happened yet. One has to wonder why. I'm all in favor of skating (and ice sports generally) becoming more popular here. It's been years since I skated, but I used to skate a lot as a kid (Boston had plenty of outdoor rinks that were open in the winter).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 AM