As the Winter Olympics in Beijing have come to an end, it’s time to look back at how Israel’s delegation of six athletes performed against the world’s best. Whether it was on the snow slopes or on the ice as the blue-and-white put the finishing touches on the Games which will hopefully be a stepping stone to the next Olympics slated for Italy in 2026.

There is no doubt that the hit of the games for Israel was skier Barnabas Szollos who exceeded all expectations on the slopes after running in 5 different competitions. With a 6th place finish in the Men’s Combined, the Hungarian born Szollos placed 11th and 2nd in his two runs to turn plenty of heads in the skiing world with a tremendous performance. The 23-yearold ended the Men’s Giant Slalom in 22nd place, the Slalom in 23rdwhile he finished both the Downhill and Super-G in 30th place for anall-around terrific Olympic performance.

Szollos’s sisterNoa competed in three competitions but only finished two of them the Women’s Super-G in which the 19-year old placed 34th and the Slalom where she ended in 41st place. Noa did not finish the Giant Slalom but hopes are high for her quality runs at such a young age.

Over on the Short Track Speed Skating, Vlaidslav Bykanov who was competing in his third Olympics for Israel, had mixed results as he advanced to the 1500 Meter semifinal and finished 17th overall, while he made it to the 500meters quarterfinals and ended in 12th place. In the 1000 meters the32-year old didn’t make it past his first heat.

In Figure skating, the duo of Evgeni Krasnopolski and Hailey Kops finished in 15thplace overall in Pairs after scoring 15th place in both the Short Program and Free Skate. The Israel Olympic Committee goal was for the Kiev born Krasnopolski and New Jersey native Kops to make the finals and that is exactly what they were able to do.

Finally, Alexei Bychenko who took part in Men’s Singles Figure Skating had a disappointing 26thplace finish in the Short Program and did not advance to the finals of the competition.