Artem Dolgopyat has quite a season this year. He finished second in the floor final twice at two World Challenge Cups in the spring, then, despite an injury, took silver on floor at Euros and then won floor golds at two World Challenge Cups in a row, Szombathely and Paris, also becoming the overall series winner on that event.
Dolgopyat helped the Israeli men’s team take tenth place at the European Championships and his routines are crucial for the team to make the top-24 at this year’s Worlds and to qualify for the 2019 Worlds as a team.
However, according to Ynet.co.il, his participation at the World Championships and defending his silver floor medal are still in jeopardy because the Israeli Defence Army hasn’t issued a permission for him to travel to Qatar. As an active duty soldier, Dolgopyat is not able to travel abroad without a special permission from the army. Since he got the permissions for other competitions this year, the current delay is likely due to the place of the competition. Israel has no diplomatic relationships with Qatar and in the past, when Israeli athletes participated in the competitions there, the Israeli flag wasn’t raised.
However, Qatar promised that Israeli athletes won’t be discriminated against at the World Championships and hopefully they will not be in any danger. The problem with a soldier traveling to a competition in Qatar is that active duty IDF soldiers have long been a coveted target for kidnapping by terrorists and Qatar is reportedly one of the sponsors of Hamas. The analytics said that unless the action on Gaza border escalates, Israeli athletes should be safe in Qatar but for a soldier, such a trip is definitely riskier than for civilians.
Ugh….i hate reading an article like this. Best wishes and safe travels to the Israeli gymnasts! I hope they win a medal and everyone throughout the world can see their flag raised! As always Luba, many thanks for all your work.