The other big-hitter was Barnabás “Barni” Szollos, who also came sixth in the combined men’s Alpine skiing event in Beijing 2022, and is competing for Israel again in the Milano Cortina Games, which start today.
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Barnabás Szollos[Missing Credit]
“Finishing sixth at the last Games felt amazing,” Szollos told the JC, “but the most special part was making Israel proud, a country that welcomed me and gave me the chance to represent them at the Olympics. That meant so much to me.”
Although Szollos, 27, was born in Budapest and raised in Hungary and Austria, he chose to represent Israel as a teenager.
He was following the footsteps of his Jewish father and former coach, Peter, who represented the Jewish state several decades ago but never on the Olympic stage.
“The idea of representing Israel was always there, since my father also raced for Israel,” Szollos said.
“Changing nations in sport isn’t an easy process, but after we had some issues with the Hungarian Ski Federation, we made the switch. It was the best decision and it helped us achieve results we couldn’t have reached without the support of Israel,” he added.
Szollos’ sister, Noa, 22, will represent Israel for the second consecutive Winter Olympics in the slalom and giant slalom.
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Noa Szollos[Missing Credit]
“In the previous Olympics, Beijing 2022, I was still very young and inexperienced so my results, maybe, were not as good as I wanted them to be – but I still had a great time,” Noa said.
“I was one of the flag bearers in the opening ceremony – it was just an incredible experience and I’m very grateful. It was such a great honour representing Israel,” she added.
Despite the fact that the siblings never lived in the Holy Land and their Hebrew is very basic, they consider themselves fully-fledged Israeli.
“I have so many friends from Israel, former ski racers I trained with as a kid, and competitors I raced against as an adult. All the support we receive and the trust they put in us makes us feel very special. We’re truly happy and proud to have the opportunity to represent Israel,” said Barni.
Noa added: “We love the country. We love visiting there. We love the food, the culture, the people, the support they provide us.
"And we also have a very strong family connection to Judaism and even the Holocaust – so it all makes sense to us.”
Their grandfather’s grandmother died when the train transporting her to a concentration camp derailed, Noa said. “I also visited Auschwitz twice and it was a very difficult experience.
"It’s very hard and painful to learn about what my family and my people went through.”
Barni summed it up: “Our family’s history is deeply connected to Jewish history, losing family members who were taken during the Second World War. That makes representing Israel and being part of the Jewish community something very personal to me.”
The Szollos siblings are two of ten athletes representing Israel in the 2026 Milano Cortina Games. There is, of course, its bobsleigh team, which consists of an American-Israeli as pilot (Adam Edelman); two Israelis (Menachem Chen and Omer Katz) and an Israeli Druze (Ward Fawarseh).
Yael Arad, president of the Israeli Olympic Committee, told the JC: “Our door is always open to every Jew who would like to be part of this journey and when there are talented athletes who are inspired by the Olympic values and would like to represent Israel, we take all the required steps to support them becoming Olympians.”
Arad was the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal – a silver in the Barcelona 1992 Judo competition – and the only Israeli on the International Olympic Committee. “The Szollos family is an inspiring story of dedication to the Olympic spirit”, she said.
