10 Great Jewish Moments in Sports (part one) ■

The 100m Mark Spitz didn't want to swim■

One of the greatest Olympians of all time, Mark Spitz is well known for winning seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games (Munich 1972), a record that held 36 years until another swimmer – Michael Phelps – won eight in Beijing. It is a little less known fact that Spitz, whose first international competition was the 1965 Maccabiah Games, never aimed at winning 7 gold medals – he wanted to compete in 'just' six events.

Having won a gold medal in his first 5 events, breaking the world record in each of them, Spitz now faced the daunting 100 freestyle final – one he did not want to swim. "If I swim six and win six, I'll be a hero. If I swim seven and win six, I'll be a failure", he told an ABC reporter just moments before leaving the warm-up pool. He ended up winning by shuttering yet another world-record, before signing off his career at the age of 22 with his seventh gold medal in the team relay.

Spitz did not get to see the closing ceremony. Following the terror attack on the Israeli Olympic team, causing the deaths of 11 athletes and coaches, Spitz was rushed out of Munich alongside other Jewish-American athletes. He retired after the 1972 Olympics, at the young age of 22.

Tal Brody puts Israel in the map■

Not many basketball players chose to forgo an NBA career to play for a team in their homeland. Even fewer did so for a career in a country they hardly ever been to.

Born in New-Jersey, Brody was an all-American college player, playing for Illinois University and the US national team. At the 1965 NBA draft, he was selected as the 12th pick by the Baltimore Bullets. But a trip to Israel that summer changed his career and life course altogether: After leading the American team to gold in the 1965 Maccabiah Games, Brody decided to make Aliyah, and play for Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Team Israel. 12 years later, during which he decided to halt his career to serve in the IDF for three years, Brody will contribute to Israeli sport's legacy its most memorable quote.

1977 saw the cold war reaching another pick. While the USSR was banning Israel and supporting the militaries of the country's enemies, Maccabi made it to the European Championship semi-final stage, where it was about to meet CSKA Moscow – the Soviet Army official team, a powerhouse in any standard. As the Soviets refused to play host to an Israeli team (as well as the Czech champions, also drawn to the group), they received a technical loss, while it was decided that Maccabi would host their "home" games in Virton, Belgium.

A lot of emotions tunnelled into a small basketball court, and on it, Brody led Maccabi to a 91-79 win, that secured a ticket to the final – a never-before event in Israel's history. As the fans carried Brody on their shoulders he was approached by an Israeli TV reporter, and in one unrehearsed sentence, that wasn't even proper Hebrew, Brody managed to describe an entire nation’s feelings: 'Anachnu B'Mapa, VeAnachnu Nish'arim B'Mapa" – we are in [on] the Map, and we are staying in [on] the map – not just in sports but in everything.

Maccabi went on to win the European Championship that year, beating Mobilgirgi Varese, Italy's champions, 78-77. Side note: that season is well depicted in the 2016 documentary 'On The Map', available on Amazon.

41-year-old Dara Torres swimming for medals■

When Jewish-American swimmer Dara Torres retired after the 1992 Olympics, she already won four medals (two of them were golden) over three Olympics. She returned from retirement for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning two more gold medals in the relays and three individual bronze medals, only to retire again at the age of 33 - the oldest American woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming. Or was she?

Eight years have passed, and Torres was back at the Olympic pool, about to leap into the 50 meters freestyle final. Torres was now a 41 year newly mom. Just a week earlier she anchored the US swimming team into gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay – but this was her last chance to win an individual gold medal. She swam faster than she ever did before, breaking the US record – but losing to Britta Steffen (Sweden) by 0.01 seconds. Heart-breaking ending. Or is it?

35 minutes later, and Torres was back on the starting block, as her teammates to the 4x100 medley relay battled the Netherlands for gold. She entered the water for her last leg when the US is behind the Dutch but a margin. Once again, she swam faster than she ever did – in fact, faster than any woman ever did in a freestyle relay race, but could not close the gap, winning her third silver medal of the games, and rolling down the curtain on an Olympic career spanning 22 years.

Sandy Koufax shutout at the 1965 World Series clincher■

Koufax is considered by many to be the greatest Jewish athlete of all-time. As a Baseball pitcher for the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers, he won four Championships, three pitching triple-crown awards and the 1963 National League MVP award. He was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 1972 at age 36, the youngest ever.

But the 1965 World Series started not with Koufax the Hall-of-Famer to be but with Koufax the proudly proclaimed Jew, when the Dodgers’ best decided not to play the opening game of the finals series, as it fell on Yom-Kippur. Koufax started Game 2 (lost) and Game 5 (won), and despite battling arthritis in his pitching left arm – started the deciding Game 7, in Minnesota, on a two days' rest.

Koufax struggled with his curveballs and had to rely on his fast pitches exclusively, but still managed to pitch the entire 9 innings. Two scores from his teammates on the 4th inning was all that was needed: Koufax did not allow Minnesota a single run, his second shut-out game in 48 hours, leading the Dodgers to a 2-0 away win – and the title.

Yael Arad brings the first-ever medal, finally■

When Yael Arad started her competition day in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, an entire country followed her every move. With three bronze medals she recently won in the World and the European Championships, Arad did not shied away from history, declaring that returning without a medal would be a failure. The only surprise in this story is that there were no surprises in this story.

Israel joined the Olympic Games in 1952, and since then it's been a long forty years in the desert: Esther Rot – Shachamorov finished sixth in 1976, behind five eastern-bloc steroid-induced sprinters; Weight-lifter Eduard Weitz finished fifth in the same games; There were the sailors Sela and Amir, who missed 2 races in Seoul due to Yom-Kippur, only to finish in fourth place; But other than those it's been a landslide of disappointments and below-average performances. Until Yael Arad came.

Arad battled hard all the way to the semi-final bout, one win away from making national history. There waited the undefeated World Champion Frauke Eickhoff, but Arad was able to take a 7 point lead with a skilful throw. "I knew she will now come 'to kill me'" she said later, and she was ready: just a few seconds after taking the lead Arad was able to turn Eickhoff's attack into the winning score – and Israel got its first Olympic medal. As if to say a new era is coming to Israeli sport, 24 hours later another Judoka, Oren Smadga, shocked the country by winning the bronze medal and adding a second medal to Arad's first.