Israel National Badminton Team

Badminton occupies a modest place in Israel's sporting landscape. Misha Zilberman, the country's most prominent player, has described the difficulty of sustaining elite preparation in a sport with limited domestic popularity, particularly when twice-daily training must be combined with work or frequent travel abroad.[4] After the Tokyo Olympics, he worked as a schoolteacher to supplement his income while continuing to train professionally.[6]

Despite these constraints, Zilberman has pointed to expanding school leagues and rising participation as signs of gradual development.[4] Israeli representation has included individual athletes at the Olympic Games as well as men's and women's squads in European team competition.[1][2]

The Zilberman family has been central to Israeli badminton across generations. Svetlana introduced Misha to the sport when he was young, and he began serious training at age 12 with the Kfar Maccabiah club.[3] His father, Michael, later served as coach of the Israeli national team, while Svetlana concentrated on developing Misha's individual game.[3]

Beyond the Olympics, Misha won gold medals in singles and mixed doubles, partnering with his mother, at the 2013 and 2017 Maccabiah Games.[3] He also earned a singles bronze medal for Team Israel at the 2019 European Games.[3] Svetlana, who had competed alongside Misha at the world championships since 2009, was reported to have set an age record with their victory at the 2022 World Championships.[5]

Israeli badminton has combined national-team coaching with individualized preparation. In 2021, Michael Zilberman was serving as coach of the Israeli national team, while Svetlana Zilberman coached Misha individually.[3] In team competition, Israel entered separate men's and women's squads at the 2020 European championships.[2] Olympic representation has instead consisted of individual entrants, including Misha Zilberman and Ksenia Polikarpova at the Tokyo Games.[1][7]

Misha Zilberman made his Olympic debut at the 2012 London Games, becoming the first Israeli badminton player to compete at the Olympics. He entered the men's singles competition and finished 33rd.[3] Israel sent 37 athletes to London across eight sports, and no Israeli won a medal at those Games.[8]

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Zilberman again represented Israel in men's singles and improved to a reported 14th-place finish.[3] Israel's delegation included 48 qualifying athletes.[9]

The Tokyo Olympics were held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, after being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.[1] Zilberman competed in men's singles at his third Games, while Ksenia Polikarpova became the first woman to represent Israel in Olympic badminton.[7] Both appeared as individual badminton entrants rather than as participants in a team event.[1][7]

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Zilberman competed in men's singles for a fourth consecutive Games. He was eliminated from contention after a group-stage loss to Denmark's Viktor Axelsen and had not advanced beyond the group stage in his previous Olympic appearances.[4]

Israel has fielded representatives at world and European badminton championships. At a world championship in China, Israel finished 20th overall. In its final match, the team lost 3–1 to the United States; Misha Zilberman earned Israel's point by defeating Timothy Lam, a result that also gave him ranking points in his campaign to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.[2]

At the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo, Svetlana and Misha Zilberman competed together in mixed doubles. Their partnership had begun as a way to help Misha prepare for his preferred men's singles competition, and they had appeared together at the world championships since 2009.[5] In Tokyo, the 64-year-old Svetlana was reported to have become the oldest player to win a world-championship match when the pair defeated Egypt's Adham Hatem Elgamal and Doha Hany, 16–21, 21–18, 21–11.[5]

Misha Zilberman won a bronze medal at the 2022 European Badminton Championships in Madrid.[6] At the 2020 European team championships, Israel entered separate men's and women's squads. The men's team lost to Spain and Croatia, finishing fifth and last in its group, while the women's team lost to England and was reported as likely to finish last before its final tie against France.[2] At the 2023 European Games in Kraków, Israel's badminton representatives were Misha Zilberman in the men's competition and Ksenia Polikarpova and Svetlana Zilberman in the women's competition.[10]

Israeli badminton's international participation has included visa and refusal-to-play incidents involving Israeli athletes.

The World Jewish Congress reported that, in 2015, Misha Zilberman encountered difficulties entering Indonesia for the World Badminton Championships in Jakarta. Despite submitting his visa application six months earlier, he waited in Singapore for two weeks amid reports that Indonesian authorities were unwilling to grant him entry.[11] He was ultimately cleared to compete. After losing his opening-round match to Taiwan's Hsu Jen-hao, 21–14, 21–14, Zilberman attributed his early departure to the disruption caused by the visa ordeal.[11] World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer stated: "As a matter of course, athletes who have qualified for an international sporting event should be allowed to travel and take part in it, regardless of the country they represent."[11]

UK Lawyers for Israel reported that, at the FZ Forza International Championship in Ukraine on August 3, 2018, two Saudi badminton players walked off the court after refusing to play a doubles match against Israeli and Ukrainian opponents.[12] According to the organization, the Saudi Badminton Committee found the players and their coach guilty of breaching its code of ethics and imposed six-month suspensions from local and international tournaments beginning October 1, 2018. The Badminton World Federation reviewed the sanctions and deemed them adequate.[12] The federation stated: "We consider such incidents as serious and want to ensure that they are properly addressed within BWF's regulatory framework."[12]