Esther Roth-Shachamorov

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Esther Roth-Shachamorov 2013

Esther Roth-Shachamorov Hebrew אסתר רוט-שחמורוב; (* April 16, 1952 in Tel Aviv ) is a former Israeli athlete who was particularly successful in the 100-meter , 200-meter and 100-meter hurdles disciplines .

Career

Beginnings

Esther Shachamorov's parents immigrated to Palestine from Moscow in 1940 ; she herself grew up in Tel Aviv and went to school there. At the age of 14 she was discovered by her long-time sponsor and trainer Amitzur Schapira , who, according to her own statement, became a father-like figure for her.

At the Eighth Maccabiade in Ramat Gan in 1969 , she won the 100, 200 meter and long jump competitions . As an 18-year-old she was one of the world's best short-distance runners . For one day she held the indoor world record in the 60-meter hurdles. Over the 100-meter distance, she won the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok , where she also won a gold medal in the pentathlon and a silver medal in the long jump.

Munich 1972

Although she was only 20 years old at the time, some experts gave her outsider chances to win medals before the Olympic Games in Munich . In the run-up, she set a new Israeli record in the 100-meter run in 11.45 s, which was to last until 2002. In the semifinals she narrowly missed the finals as fifth of her run (at the same time as fourth-placed, former world record holder Barbara Ferrell ). Two days later, on September 4, 1972, she confirmed her good form and reached the semi-finals in the 100-meter hurdles in a new personal best. Early the next day, Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization broke into the Israeli team's quarters and took nine hostages after killing trainer Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Josef Romano . Esther Shachamorov lived in another building 200 meters from the crime scene. About 21 hours later she received the news that the hostages, among them her trainer Amitzur Schapira, had been murdered at the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield after a chaotic attempt at rescue . She did not take part in the hurdles competition and traveled back to Israel. Due to the events in Munich, Esther Shachamorov originally wanted to end her career immediately. However, her later husband and trainer Peter Roth introduced her to the sport again.

At the Ninth Maccabiade in 1973, she won the short distances and the long jump. It was only after the competitions that she found out that she was three months pregnant . She also won gold medals in all sprint disciplines at the Asian Games a year later in Tehran .

Montreal 1976

Another career highlight was the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal . After she had prevailed in the semi-finals of the 100-meter hurdles as fourth against the simultaneous Pole Bożena Nowakowska (13.04 s) in the photo finish , Esther Roth was the first female athlete from Israel in an Olympic final. There she confirmed her time from the semi-finals and finished sixth. This made her the fastest hurdler outside of Eastern Europe. Until the late 1990s, this placement was considered the most remarkable achievement in Israeli sport.

Two months after the Olympic Games, she improved her personal best in the hurdles discipline to 12.93 s at the ISTAF in Berlin , a record that has not been reached in Israel since. It was her first competition in the Federal Republic of Germany after the Munich massacre. A year later she also took part in the 1st  World Athletics Cup in Düsseldorf . At the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1978 , she was not allowed to compete because Israel was excluded from the Asian Games Federation under pressure from Arab states and the People's Republic of China .

End of career

At the age of only 27, Esther Roth announced her retirement from active sport in 1979; a comeback in 1980 was short-lived. After considering it a mistake for decades that the Munich Olympics had continued after the attack on the Israeli team, the bombing of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics prompted them to reassess the situation. The newspaper Jerusalem Post she said in 1997: "When sporting events of national or international significance of terrorist attacks or other incidents are concerned, there is no other choice than to continue the event [...] From the unexpected, we will never be able to completely protect us anyway. "

Esther Roth has been named Israel's Sportswoman of the Year three times by Maariw newspaper . In 1999 she received the Israel Prize for her life's work . Today she works as a sports teacher at a school in Kfar Saba . The mother of two children lives with her husband in Herzlia .

Top performances

  • 50-meter run: 6.4 s
  • 60-meter run (hall): 7.1 s
  • 100 meter run: 11.45 s
  • 200-meter run: 23.57 s
  • 100 meter hurdles: 12.93 s
  • Pentathlon: 6233 points
  • Long jump: 6.14 m

successes

Maccabiads

  • 100 meter run
    • 1969: gold
    • 1973: gold
  • 200 meter run
    • 1969: gold
    • 1973: gold
    • 1977: gold
  • 100 meter hurdles
    • 1977: gold
  • Long jump
    • 1969: gold
    • 1973: gold
  • 4 x 100 meter relay
    • 1977: gold

Asian Games

  • 100 meter run
    • 1974: gold
  • 200 meter run
    • 1974: gold
  • 100 meter hurdles
    • 1970: gold
    • 1974: gold
  • Long jump
    • 1970: silver
  • Pentathlon
    • 1970: gold

Olympic games

  • 100 meter run
    • 1972: eliminated in the semi-finals
  • 100 meter hurdles
    • 1972: qualified for the semi-finals
    • 1976: sixth

literature

  • Robert Slater: Great Jews in sports. David, Middle Village (NY) 1983, ISBN 0-8246-0285-4 .
  • Simon Reeve : One day in September. The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli revenge operation "Wrath of God". Arcade, New York 2000, ISBN 1-55970-547-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Esther Roth (1952–) www.jewoftheday.com (accessed on December 22, 2009)
  2. ↑ Simon Reeve, One day in September, p. 246 f.
  3. ↑ a b Esther Roth-Shachamorov in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ), accessed on December 22, 2009
  4. ↑ Simon Reeve, One day in September, pp. 3-9
  5. ^ Simon Reeve, One day in September, p. 247
  6. ↑ cit. based on Esther Shachamorov www.jewsinsports.org (accessed December 22, 2009)
  7. ↑ Rozin, Roth-Shahamorov get Israel Prize ( Memento of 25 October 2012 at the Internet Archive ) Jerusalem Post, January 14, 1999
personal data
SURNAME Roth-Shachamorov, Esther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shachamorov, Esther; Roth, Esther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli athlete
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Tel Aviv