Bat-El Gatterer

Gatterer grew up in Kochav Yaakov and was the eldest of six children.[2] Her entry into martial arts was largely accidental: she enrolled in a self-defense class as a child because the class schedule suited her parents' working hours.[2][7] Her parents encouraged her to continue training even during periods when she lost interest.[2]

At age 12, after showing athletic promise, a coach recommended she focus on taekwondo, and she began training at a club in Jerusalem.[2] She has described the sport as demanding thought, tactics, persistence, and hard work.[2] Her parents provided financial support until she entered the Olympic squad, which she later credited as essential to her development as an athlete.[7]

Gatterer accumulated a range of international results in her early career, including a gold medal at the 2006 Swedish Championships, followed by gold medals at championships in Austria, the Netherlands, and Croatia, along with a silver medal in Belgium and bronze medals in Sweden and Belgium.[2] She was studying physical education and mathematics at Givat Washington while pursuing taekwondo as her primary occupation.[2]

At age 20, Gatterer was Israel's sole taekwondo representative at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and competed in the women's up-to-57-kilogram category.[8] She was the second Israeli Olympic taekwondo competitor, after Maya Arusi, who had competed in Athens in 2004.[1][8]

At Beijing, Gatterer lost 3–4 to Croatia's Martina Zubčić in the qualification round, with reports noting that she began the bout favorably but was overcome with about 30 seconds remaining.[9] The Jerusalem Post graded her performance a "D" while observing that she was "another youngster who shouldn't feel disheartened by her early exit."[10]

On 13 May 2010, Gatterer won the European Taekwondo Championship in St. Petersburg.[4] Five victories earned her the gold medal, and Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah," was played in the arena.[4] Coverage by ONE characterized the achievement as the first time an Israeli man or woman had won a top placing at a championship of that kind.[3]

By 2013, Gatterer said she still wanted to continue competing, that she enjoyed the sport, and that she hoped to keep going as long as she could achieve results.[11] She also noted the difficulty of finding a personal partner while maintaining a demanding athletic schedule.[11] In a 2011 interview, she spoke about the challenge of attracting sponsorship, saying that taekwondo's relatively small profile in Israel made it hard to secure commercial support.[7]

After retiring from competition, Gatterer moved into coaching and athlete development.[5] A 2023 profile said she had taken on coaching Israel's national taekwondo team approximately two and a half years earlier.[5] She also ran taekwondo classes in Petah Tikva, served as an Athena ambassador, lectured on the promotion of women's sport in Israel, and worked to introduce children to the sport and help younger athletes reach the national team and international competition.[5]

In July 2025, she led the Israeli delegation at a para-taekwondo world circuit event in South Korea. The delegation included competitors Assaf Yasur and Adnan Milad.[6]

Gatterer was raised in a religious home and has spoken openly about maintaining Jewish observance while competing internationally.[4] Keeping kosher and observing Shabbat are important to her; she brought kosher instant noodles from Israel to competitions and sometimes declined the standard athlete refreshments to uphold her dietary practice.[12]

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy notes two striking examples of her commitment. At a competition in Belgium, observing Shabbat meant she could not use her phone or the elevator; fearing she would oversleep, she rose very early, slept only three hours in total, competed through five rounds, and won a bronze medal.[12] On another occasion, at a competition in Germany that fell on Shabbat, she walked three hours through snow to reach the venue — arriving, she joked, looking like a snowman — and won her match that day.[12]