Adva Cohen

Born in Jerusalem, Cohen began running through school athletics in Givat Ze'ev.[3][5] After she won school cross-country championships in sixth grade, her teacher, Riki Mansour, recommended that she pursue athletics.[6] She began training with Roman Friedman in Jerusalem and later moved with him to the Lider Jerusalem club.[6] By 2017, when she was 21, she had been running for seven years.[5]

Her introduction to the steeplechase began with a suggestion she later recalled making half-jokingly.[6] Friedman initially rejected the idea, but a training session over barriers sparked her interest in the event.[6] Explaining her attraction to a race involving 28 barriers and seven water jumps, Cohen said: “It looked like a challenge, and I love big challenges.”[6]

In 2017, Cohen broke the Israeli women's 3,000-meter steeplechase record four times in two months.[5] Her progression began from 11:04.04 in her first race the previous year; at the Israeli championships, she ran 10:16.20 to surpass Irina Vaingarten's 12-year-old national record of 10:41.56.[5] By the time of a July 2017 profile, her season best stood at 10:07.82.[5] Her father attributed her improvement to increased support at Lider Jerusalem, continued coaching by Friedman, and three 18-day training camps in Europe.[5] At that stage, she aimed to break 10 minutes and had already identified the Tokyo Olympics as a longer-term goal.[5]

Cohen also contributed to Israel's team results and competed over other distances in 2017.[5] At the Nations Cup held in Israel, she finished second among 12 competitors, earning 11 points that helped the Israeli team remain in Division B.[5] She won the Israeli 5,000-meter title in the absence of national record-holder Lonah Chemtai and ran 4:24.49 in the 1,500 meters at the Israeli championships.[5] Her breakthrough season brought her the Israel Athletics Association's 2017 National Track and Field Breakthrough Athlete of the Year title.[7]

By 2018, Cohen was studying at the University of Iowa and had lowered her steeplechase time to 9:52.37 in Des Moines.[6] Friedman identified her sense of pace and ability to adjust her speed as particular strengths, while Cohen emphasized determination and persistence in explaining her progress.[6] She and her advisers subsequently decided on a transfer to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, attracted by its athletics program and altitude-training conditions.[6] Recalling the move to the United States in 2025, she said that she had initially been reluctant, but that Friedman and her family persuaded her to take an opportunity combining education, English-language development, training facilities, and international experience.[4]

At the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Cohen finished fifth in the steeplechase final in an Israeli-record 9:29.74.[3] Her performances extended beyond the steeplechase: she held Israeli records in the mile, at 4:42.44, and the indoor 5,000 meters, at 15:42.85.[3] In February 2019, she ran an indoor 3,000 meters in 9:08.40 in Seattle, but the performance did not qualify as an Israeli indoor record because the race used a 307-meter track rather than a standard 200-meter track.[8] Her previous mark of 9:29.04 consequently remained the national indoor record.[8]

At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Cohen ran 9:42.94 in her preliminary steeplechase heat, placing tenth in the heat and 24th overall among 43 runners without advancing to the final.[9] That performance was outside the sub-9:30 Olympic qualifying standard discussed at the time.[9] She subsequently represented Israel in the steeplechase at the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021.[1] The Games retained their 2020 designation after the coronavirus pandemic delayed them to July 23–August 8, 2021.[10] Cohen finished 14th and last in her heat in 10:05.95, ranking 39th of 41 runners overall and missing the final.[1]

At the 2022 European Championships, Cohen finished eighth in the steeplechase final, meeting her goal for the championship.[11] After graduating from the University of New Mexico, she joined a professional training group in Arizona coached by Stephen Haas and continued training at altitude.[12] In 2024, she improved the Israeli indoor 5,000-meter record by eight seconds to 15:27.20.[12] At that year's European Championships in Rome, she ran 9:35.41 in the steeplechase heats, finishing eighth in her heat and 15th overall in qualification to reach the final.[13]

In 2025, Cohen described her professional group as Under Armour Dark Sky in Flagstaff, Arizona, and credited its facilities, recovery resources, coaching staff, and training partners with helping her become more professional.[4] She also explained that she had missed qualification for the Paris Olympics by three places in the world rankings.[4] After that disappointment, she told her coach that she wanted to compete in Tokyo at the following year's World Championships, while identifying qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as her principal goal for the next three years.[4]

Her 2025 outdoor season brought successive improvements to the Israeli steeplechase record.[14] In May, she ran 9:27.79 at a Gold-level competition in Bydgoszcz, Poland, breaking the 9:29.74 mark she had set in Berlin in 2018.[3][14] Ten days later, she lowered the record again to 9:24.46 at the FBK Games in the Netherlands.[14] In June, she traveled from the United States to Israel to compete in the domestic championships and seek additional points ahead of the World Championships.[15] The Athletics Federation canceled the competition, and she was unable to leave Israel for Europe to attend the Diamond League meeting in Paris, resulting in two missed events.[15]

In her account of the 2025 season, Cohen also listed a Balkan title, an Israeli title, and a gold medal at the European Team Championships in Division B among her achievements.[4] At the World Championships in Tokyo, she improved the Israeli steeplechase record to 9:19.90.[2] Despite the national record, she finished sixth in her heat and missed advancement to the final by one place.[2]

At the 2026 European Championships in Birmingham, Cohen reached the steeplechase final after running 9:37.15.[16] Appearing at the championships for the fourth time, she secured the eighth and final qualifying place in her heat in the closing meters and sought to match or improve her fifth-place finish from Berlin.[16] She finished tenth in the final in 9:38.21.[17] By the 2026 championships, she was a professional athlete competing in Diamond League events and representing Maccabi Tel Aviv.[18]

Cohen's national-record progression links her early breakthrough in Israeli athletics with her later international career: she improved the steeplechase record repeatedly in 2017, reached fifth place in Europe with another record in 2018, and lowered the mark to 9:19.90 at the 2025 World Championships.[5][2] Her record-setting performances have also included the mile and indoor distance events.[3][12]

Representing Israel remained a source of pride for Cohen in her 2025 account of her career.[4] Her stated ambitions extended beyond her Tokyo Olympic appearance and subsequent championship performances to qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.[4]

In a 2025 interview, Cohen recalled receiving anti-Israel remarks before competing at the 2018 Mediterranean U23 Championships, including “Israel is not wanted here,” after which she moved elsewhere to warm up.[4] She also recounted an online attack during the 2019 World Championships in Doha, saying that team security staff handled it so that she would not feel threatened.[4] She presented both incidents as personal recollections in the interview.[4]