In the course of a few hours, Avishag Samberg went from being a private, almost anonymous individual to Israel's national champion – a source of pride and inspiration for tens of thousands of youngsters throughout the country.
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But her public visibility is not the only thing that soared in that short period of time. Gedera – the town in the Judean foothills where she lives – also suddenly became famous. The head of the local council and the town's residents have been embracing Samberg for some time, and last Thursday evening held a reception for her in the courtyard of the council headquarters, with hundreds of participants. At the reception, which was broadcast live on various websites, Samberg received a NIS40,000 stipend from the head of the council.
Let me just remind you of the Gedera where I grew up. We moved there from Rishon Lezion after my mother saw an advertisement on a trip there with me and my twin brother. The move from the big city in the center of the country to Gedera was a shock. Why? In my generation, nearly no one knew where Gedera was, and the major news we talked about was the renovation of the small town's central bus station thanks to Avri Gilad's program "Katan Aleynu."
Of course, the term "central bus station" described a few benches and an open concrete space where someday three stores were supposed to open if we got lucky. The most talked-about delicacies were the bourekas on the main highway and the falafel at the entrance to the town. Actually, they're still talked about, as is the quantity of the town's fast-food businesses per capita – apparently among the highest in the country.
In general, people had a very hard time remembering the name "Gedera," always confusing it with Hadera. I remember my days in junior high school when reports about a terrorist attack in Hadera were broadcast on the news and my worried classmates would call me at home to see how I was since cellphones were a rarity in those days. There were dozens of calls in which I thanked them for their concern, explaining that I lived south of Rehovot – very far from the scene of the attack in Hadera.
I assume the Olympic medalist from Gedera did not grow up constantly hearing the sentence "You're the first person I know from Gedera" or the taunt "Isn't Gedera the place you see on the bus to Beersheba?" Avishag was born into a different reality, in which Gedera's different parts are connected by highways and the town boasts a school of martial arts, five high schools, and a well-developed support system operated by the local council to assist the town's youngsters.
Nevertheless, Avishag's achievement is, above all, her own. Not Israel's or Gedera's, much as we'd like to think so. Samberg beat the odds, winning the bronze medal thanks to years of strenuous effort, willpower, and, apparently, her unique personality.
Politicians and their cronies would do well to avoid breaking an Olympic record in hypocrisy; after all, the state's support of athletes is shameful. Let Samberg leverage her success in the private sector and obtain a marketing campaign or two so she can finance her way to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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