Andrea Murez

Murez grew up in Los Angeles, where her introduction to swimming came at her grandfather's condominium pool, where she and her older brother first took up the sport.[1] Her paternal grandfather, Joe, had swum for the Hakoach Jewish sports club in Vienna in the 1930s, a connection that gave the family a direct link to Jewish athletic history.[1][2]

Murez studied biology at Stanford University, graduating in 2013.[3] Her parents and grandfather were present when she competed at her first Maccabiah Games in Israel in 2009, an experience she later described as formative.[1]

Murez competed at the Maccabiah Games in both 2009 and 2013, building an exceptional record across the two appearances.[3] At her first Maccabiah in 2009, she won five gold and five silver medals.[3] She returned in 2013 and set multiple records in the pool, was named the Games' outstanding female athlete, and began to seriously consider continuing her swimming career under the Israeli flag after forming friendships with Israeli swimmers who, she recalled, were warm and welcoming.[3]

At the 2017 Maccabiah, she set a new Games record in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:59.80, breaking the record she herself had previously set while representing the United States, and also broke the Games record in the 100-meter freestyle.[6] By the time of the 2024 Paris Olympics, she had accumulated 18 Maccabiah medals in total, including 13 gold, and had been recognized as the first Israeli swimmer to complete the 200-meter freestyle in under two minutes.[2]

The Maccabiah experience was central to her decision to make aliyah. She recalled the sunrise tour of Masada during her first visit, saying that the memory stayed with her.[5] "I especially remember the tour of Masada, the sunrise there," she said.[5] She became an Israeli citizen in 2014, describing the transition to a new country, language, and culture as genuinely difficult but meaningful.[3][5]

Murez represented Israel at three consecutive Olympic Games, spanning nearly a decade of international competition at the sport's highest level.[2]

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she was entered in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle, as well as the 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke.[7][3] She became ill a week before the Games while already in the Olympic Village, and later recalled withdrawing from some events and not swimming well in others as a result.[3] She also took part in Israel's first Olympic women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, alongside Zohar Shikler, Amit Ivry, and Keren Zibner.[4]

At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, Murez qualified in the 50-, 100-, and 200-meter freestyle.[8] She finished last in her 100-meter freestyle heat and did not advance, but set a new Israeli record in the event—a time of 54.06 seconds that stood as Israel's long-course 100-meter freestyle record as of 2024.[8][4] She was part of the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay team alongside Anastasia Gorbenko, Gal Cohen Groumi, and Itay Goldfaden, which reached the relay final and finished eighth.[4]

At Paris 2024, Murez competed in her third Olympics and was selected as Israel's female flag-bearer for the opening ceremony alongside judoka Peter Paltchik, a choice the Israeli Olympic Committee said was intended to represent the delegation's values and spirit of determination.[2] Her only event at the Games was the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay preliminary heat, and Israel did not advance beyond it.[9] She had qualified for Paris not through the individual standard or the World Championships relay, but as one of three relay swimmers added to the team—a selection made possible in part by the team's gold medal at the 2024 European Championships, where she swam the relay alongside Anastasia Gorbenko, Ron Polonsky, and Gal Cohen Groumi.[4] Reflecting on carrying the flag, she said: "It was special, a kind of closure to the period in which I represented Israel since 2017."[5]

At the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Murez tied with the Netherlands' Maud van der Meer in the women's 100-meter freestyle heats, forcing a swim-off for the 16th and final semifinal place.[10] She won the swim-off in 54.20 seconds, setting an Israeli record and becoming the second Israeli swimmer to reach a semifinal at the World Championships.[10] She finished last among the semifinalists, clocking 54.62 seconds.[10]

In April 2021, competing at the Stockholm Open, Murez broke her own Israeli 200-meter freestyle record with a time of 1:57.97.[11] Swimming the opening leg, she also helped Israel's women's 4×200-meter freestyle relay set a national record of 8:06.91, more than 17 seconds faster than the previous national record, which had stood since 2016.[11] She said she was shocked by her split and added: "I did it for the relay, for the girls here."[11]

Beyond the 100- and 200-meter freestyle, Murez has held Israeli national records in the 50-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle, and both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, and was part of four Israeli relay records as of mid-2024.[4]

After competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Murez enrolled at Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine, studying in an English-language program.[3] Following the Tokyo Olympics, she paused competitive swimming for approximately a year to focus on medical studies and hospital rotations, finding it difficult to manage classes, pool training, and evening study simultaneously.[4] She returned to full training in January 2023 and graduated from Tel Aviv University in spring 2023.[3][9]

Murez also learned Hebrew through an ulpan program, through immersion in her swimming environment, and through conversations with patients during medical training.[4]

With her medical degree in hand, Murez set out to apply her expertise directly to Israeli elite sport. She proposed developing a mental-health program for Israel's national-team athletes, including translating an International Olympic Committee mental-health survey into Hebrew and establishing a baseline by asking athletes about mood, sleep, eating, and substance use.[9] As of July 2024, she was also a member of the Israeli Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.[2] She planned to begin a psychiatry residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after Paris 2024, with an eventual goal of bringing sports psychiatry expertise back to Israel.[9][4]

Murez described studying medicine as a source of perspective that helped her cope with the pressures of elite competition. "I have this career that I've set up for myself," she said, "so this isn't the end of the world if I don't perform as well as I want."[9]

In the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics, Murez spoke about what it meant to represent Israel during the war that began on October 7. She said she had not been in Israel when the war began, and that the volume and nature of messages she received after Israel's gold medal at the 2024 European Championships helped her understand how deeply her role as an Israeli athlete resonated with people back home during that period.[4]