At the 1992 Barcelona Games, Yael Arad won Israel’s first Olympic honor: a silver medal in the half-middleweight judo competition.She dedicated the medal to the victims’ families from the Munich Games (massacre) in 1972 saying “We’ll never forget it, but maybe today it is something that will close the circle.”Arad began training at age 8, attending judo lessons with her brother. It became hard to find comparable female judo partners, so she trained with the men’s team coach. Going into the 1992 Olympics, all eyes were on her as she defeated the world’s number 1 and 2 ranked judokas and won the silver medal at the German Open Championships.In Israel, she is a prominent voice for championing increased women’s participation in sports.