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Yuval Freilich

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Yuval Shalom Freilich
יובל פרייליך
Freilich, 2016
Personal information
Born (1995-01-24) 24 January 1995 (age 29)[1]
Israel
Sport
Country Israel
Weaponépée
Handleft-handed[2]
National coachAngelo Mazzoni[2]
ClubHapoel Kfar Saba[1]
Former coachOhad Balva and Alexander Ivanov[2][3]
FIE rankingcurrent ranking
Medal record
Men's fencing
Representing Israel Israel
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2019 Düsseldorf Individual Epee
Silver medal – second place 2022 Antalya Team Epee
World Junior Fencing Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Plovdiv Individual épée
Gold medal – first place 2015 Maribor Individual épée
European Junior Fencing Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Jerusalem Individual épée
Gold medal – first place 2015 Maribor Individual épée
World Cadet Fencing Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Baku Individual épée
Gold medal – first place 2012 Moscow Individual épée
European Cadet Fencing Championships
Gold medal – first place 2011 Klangenfurt Individual épée

Yuval Shalom Freilich (יובל פרייליך; born 24 January 1995) is an Israeli left-handed épée fencer, ranked 9th in the world in 2023-24.[2] In both 2014 and 2015 Freilich won the European Men's Épée Junior Championship. He won the individual épée gold medal at the 2019 European Fencing Championships, the épée team silver medal with Israel at the 2022 European Fencing Championships, and the gold medal at the 2024 Epee Grand Prix event in Qatar.

Freilich represented Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics in men's épée, and came in 19th.

Early life

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Freilich was born in Israel and is an Orthodox Jew, and grew up in a religious observant Jewish family.[4][5][6] The family lived in Gush Etzion in the settlement of Neve Daniel, south of Jerusalem, and in the moshav Havatzelet HaSharon in central Israel.[7][2][8][6] His parents Gabby (a radiologist) and Rachel Freilich had emigrated to Israel from Sydney, Australia, and he has three brothers and two sisters; he is the second-youngest of the six siblings.[5][2][9][6][10] He grew up loving dancing, and especially tap dancing.[5] He is the nephew of former Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia president Rabbi Dovid Freilich.[9]

In 2000, when Freilich was a child, his family moved to Australia, where he lived for five years and attended Moriah College primary school, but then settled to Israel in 2004 and later attended Hartman High School in Jerusalem.[2][6][9] He served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, and trained at the Wingate Institute.[6] He found that, as an athlete, his three years of compulsory military service slowed his progress in fencing because it limited his time considerably, and took a "mental and energetic toll."[11] He later attended Open University of Israel in Netanya, Israel, studying Law, and IDC Herzliya (now known as Reichman University), where he double majored in Law and Government and was later inducted into the Reichman University Sports Hall of Fame.[12][13][14][2]

Fencing career

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Early years

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Freilich began fencing at the age of eight.[11][2][8] He became interested in fencing after seeing it in the 2000 OIympics.[15] His coach starting in 2009 was Ohad Balva, he was laterd coached by Alexander Ivanov, and he is now coached by Angelo Mazzoni), and his club is Hapoel Kfar Saba.[3][5][1][16] In a typical week, he has four or five lessons with a coach, three fitness sessions, and three or four fencing training sessions of up to an hour and a half.[3]

2010–13; World Cadet champion and European Cadet champion

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Yuval Freilich, 2013

In April 2010, at 15 years of age and younger than many of his opponents, he won a bronze medal in the men's épée 2010 World Cadet Fencing Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan.[17][18] In 2010 he was named one of the Top 10 U-20 Israeli Athletes, by Israeli news website Ynet.[2]

In 2011 he won the European Cadet Championship, in Klagenfurt, Austria.[9][7] In 2011-12, he was ranked 2nd in the world among junior epee fencers.[2]

In 2012 at 17 years of age Freilich won the men's épée 2012 World Cadet Fencing Championship in Moscow, Russia, and became the #1-ranked épée cadet in the world.[19] Also that year, in Croatia, he led the Israeli team to a gold medal in the European Team Championships.[7] In March 2012, he won a bronze medal in the junior championship of Europe, in Porec, Croatia.[20] In addition, in December 2012 he won a bronze medal in the junior epee Young Lions World Cup in Espoo, Finland, behind Sergey Bida and Lorenzo Buzzi, in a competition with 170 fencers.[20]

2014–15; 2x European Junior champion, and #1 ranked junior epee fencer in the world

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In January 2014, he won the gold medal at the junior epee Alpe Adria World Cup in Udine, Italy, in a competition with 147 fencers.[21]

In March 2014 Freilich won the European Men's Épée Junior Championship in Jerusalem, Israel, in a competition with 254 fencers.[22]

In April 2014 Freilich came in 6th at the World Men's Épée Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in a competition with 114 fencers.[22][5]

In November 2014 he won the junior epee Mémorial de Martinengo World Cup in Tallinn, Estonia, in a competition with 254 fencers.[23]

In March 2015 Freilich again won the European Men's Épée Junior Championship, this time in Maribor, Slovenia, in a competition with 115 fencers.[22][24] In 2015 he was the #1 ranked junior épée fencer in the world.[25]

2016–present; European champion

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In February 2016 he won a Men's Épée bronze medal at the Peter Bakonyi World Cup in Vancouver, Canada, in a competition with 192 fencers.[22][26]

In May 2018, he won a silver medal in individual men's epee at the Coppa Citta di Lugano in Lugano, Switzerland.[27]

On June 18, 2019, Freilich won Israel's first European fencing title in the men's individual épée tournament at the 2019 European Fencing Championships in Düsseldorf, Germany.[16] Israel's first European medal had been won by Noam Mills, who won a women's individual épée bronze medal in Leipzig, Germany, in 2010.[16]

In May 2020, he said that due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel which prevented him from fencing, he put more effort into physical preparation and mental training.[28] He turned his garden into his own private gym, and trained twice a day, including exercises such as yoga and meditation that he wouldn’t usually do during the regular season.[28]

On June 22, 2022, he won the épée team silver medal with Israel at the 2022 European Fencing Championships in Antalya, Turkey.[29]

In January 2024, Freilich won the gold medal at the 2024 Epee Grand Prix event in Doha, Qatar, in an event with 276 fencers.[30][31] He did so in the Arab country that does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, while wearing a fencing uniform with an Israeli flag.[32] He was the first Israeli to win a fencing Grand Prix.[3] After he won, the Israeli national anthem was played during the podium ceremony.[32][33] At the time, he was ranked #8 in the world in men's epee.[32]

2024 Paris Olympics

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Freilich represented Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Men's épée, and came in 19th after being eliminated by former European champion Andrea Santarelli of Italy.[34] He was the first Israeli man to qualify in epee for an Olympics.[35]

Medal record

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European Championship

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Year Location Event Position
2019 Germany Düsseldorf, Germany Individual Men's Épée 1st[36]
2022 Turkey Antalya, Turkey Team Men's Épée 2nd[37]

World Cup

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Date Location Event Position
2016-02-12 Canada Vancouver, Canada Individual Men's Épée 3rd[38]

Grand Prix

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Date Location Event Position
2024-01-31 Qatar Doha, Qatar Individual Men's Épée 1st[39]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Fencers; Yuval Shalom Freilich," European Fencing Federation.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Freilich, Yuval Shalom". International Fencing Federation.
  3. ^ a b c d Igor Chirashnya (12 February 2024). "Interview: Victory, Change, and Paris 2024 with Grand Prix Champion Yuval Freilich". Academy of Fencing Masters.
  4. ^ Gideon Sapir and Daniel Statman (2019). State and Religion in Israel; A Philosophical-Legal Inquiry, Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ a b c d e Rebecca McKinsey (17 April 2014). "Aiming for Olympics, fencer cuts a wide swath in Europe; Israeli teen, an IDF soldier, maneuvers around religious background to practice his sport to the hilt". The Times of Israel.
  6. ^ a b c d e Uri Talshir (14 March 2014). "Making a point: Israel’s finest fencer - on Sabbath, too; Yuval Freilich had to learn not only to perfect his moves but to compete on the Sabbath," Haaretz.
  7. ^ a b c "Israeli Wins European Fencing Championship; Like his country, young Israeli fencer overcame enormous odds to take the world by storm". Israel Today. 19 June 2019.
  8. ^ a b "In first, Israeli wins European fencing championship; 24-year-old Yuval Freilich takes the gold in Dusseldorf contest; ‘it’s the most incredible feeling,’ he says," The Times of Israel, 18 June 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d "Former Moriah student wins European fencing championship; Former Moriah College student Yuval Freilich has won the gold medal in the European Fencing Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany," Australian Jewish News, 19 June 2019.
  10. ^ David Brinn (16 July 2010). "‘Only Israel’ strikes a chord on YouTube; Pro-Israel hasbara song- 350,000 views," The Jerusalem Post.
  11. ^ a b Igor Chirashnya (16 July 2020). "Finding the Fire Inside with European Epee Champion Yuval Freilich". Academy of Fencing Masters.
  12. ^ "Hall of Fame," Reichman University.
  13. ^ "Athletes / Freilich, Yuval Shalom," universiade2013.
  14. ^ "IDC Herzliya Hall of Fame," IDC.
  15. ^ Griver, Simon (19 June 2019). "Freilich wins gold at European Fencing Championships". The Jewish Chronicle.
  16. ^ a b c "Freilich Makes History For Israel With First European Fencing Crown," European Fencing Confederation, 18 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Religious fencer wins medal on Shabbat". Ynet. 6 April 2010.
  18. ^ "Junior/Cadet World Championship Individual Medalists by Year" (PDF).
  19. ^ "Israeli Wins Fencing Championship in Moscow," The Canadian Jewish News, 20 April 2012.
  20. ^ a b "Young Lions World Cup". International Fencing Federation. 1 December 2012.
  21. ^ "Alpe Adria World Cup". International Fencing Federation. 4 January 2014.
  22. ^ a b c d "Fencing - Yuval Shalom Freilich", the-sports.org.
  23. ^ "Mémorial de Martinengo World Cup". International Fencing Federation. 22 November 2014.
  24. ^ "Championnats d'Europe juniors zone championships". International Fencing Federation. 1 March 2015.
  25. ^ Nicole Jomantas (19 January 2015). "U.S. Men’s Epee Team Finishes Seventh at Basel Junior World Cup," USA Fencing.
  26. ^ Allon Sinai (15 February 2016). "Fencer Freilich finishes on the podium for Israel," The Jerusalem Post.
  27. ^ "Yuval Shalom Freilich". fencing.ophardt.online.
  28. ^ a b "Yuval Freilich - Interview; The postponement of the Olympics was of course very disappointing..." PBT Fencing. 4 May 2020.
  29. ^ Michael Houston (22 June 2022). "Italy take two golds on last day of European Fencing Championships". Inside the Games.
  30. ^ "Hong Kong, China's Kong, Israel's Freilich Win Qatar Women's and Men's Epee Grand Prix". FIE. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  31. ^ "EFC Celebrates European Fencer's Achievements," European Fencing Federation, February 12, 2024.
  32. ^ a b c Jacob Gurvis (7 February 2024). "Kibbitz: Israeli Fencer Yuval Freilich Wins Gold Medal in Qatar, Home to Hamas' Leadership". Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
  33. ^ Leichman, Abigail Klein (5 February 2024). "Israeli fencer wins gold medal in Qatar; Yuval Freilich stands on podium in Doha as Israel's national anthem plays. He now faces 3 more Olympic qualifying events". ISRAEL21c.
  34. ^ "Olympic Qualification Period Comes to an End," European Fencing Confederation, March 25, 2024.
  35. ^ "Important for Israelis to see their athletes at the Olympics, defeated fencer says," The Times of Israel.
  36. ^ "Championnats d'Europe zone championships". International Fencing Federation. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  37. ^ "Championnats d'Europe zone championships". International Fencing Federation. 22 June 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  38. ^ "Coupe du Monde world cupc". The International Fencing Federation. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  39. ^ "Yuval Freilich". FIE. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
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