Moran Samuel

Samuel grew up in Karmiel and began playing sports at age nine.[1] She developed into a promising basketball player and, by her own account, represented Israel from age 15.[2] During her mandatory service in the Israeli Air Force, a special program for outstanding athletes allowed her to continue playing for Israel's women's national basketball team while completing her military obligations.[3]

Before her injury, she played club basketball with a Karmiel side that competed in European Cup matches.[4] Her selection for the outstanding-athlete program allowed her to sustain an elite basketball career during her military service, and she continued with the national team after completing it.[3]

In 2006, at age 24, Samuel suffered what she has described as a rare spinal-cord stroke, caused by a congenital malformation of blood vessels in her spinal cord, that left her paralyzed from the chest downward.[5][6] She recalled going to sleep normally after training and waking with severe back pain, with no warning of what was about to change her life.[5]

Following a long rehabilitation, Samuel completed academic studies at the University of Haifa, earning a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy and a master's degree in early childhood education.[5] She went on to work as a pediatric physiotherapist, helping children with developmental problems.[5] Samuel has described the period after her injury as one in which she had to shift her thinking from "my life is over" to "my life as I knew it is over."[7]

As part of her rehabilitation and return to sport, Samuel worked with the Paralympic Sports Association to help re-establish Israel's women's wheelchair basketball team.[3] The renewed squad qualified for the 2011 European Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Nazareth.[3] She also joined Beit Halochem Tel Aviv, where she was the only woman on an otherwise all-male team that won the double championship in 2011.[3] At the 2013 European Championship in Frankfurt, she was voted one of the five best players in Europe and selected for the tournament's All-Star Team.[3] She later said she moved into rowing because Israel lacked a high-level women's wheelchair basketball program.[8]

Samuel began training in single-scull rowing in 2010 after being persuaded by her future wife, Limor Goldberg, who was herself a rower.[3][4] Samuel initially resisted the idea and recalled thinking it sounded strange because "you have to row backwards."[1] Goldberg eventually convinced her by saying, "Try it for me."[4] Samuel has said rowing was not love at first sight—she disliked swimming and considered herself a person of the land—but she gradually increased her training at the Daniel Rowing Center on the Yarkon River, and within two years called it her home.[4]

Just six months after picking up the sport, she won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Rowing Championships.[1] In 2012, she won gold at the Adaptive Rowing Regatta in Gavirate, Italy; when organizers had no recording of Hatikva, Israel's national anthem, Samuel asked for the microphone and sang it herself on the podium.[3] Her coaches during her rise included Italian coach Paula Grizzetti and Israeli coach Dima Margolis.[9] Her training was supported by Altshuler Shaham, the Daniel Rowing Center, the Israel Paralympic Committee, and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization.[2]

Samuel made her Paralympic debut at the London 2012 Games, reaching the rowing final and finishing fifth—one second short of a bronze medal.[1] She later reflected that she may have expended too much energy in the semifinal by trying to finish first or second to secure a place in the final.[1]

At the Rio 2016 Paralympics, Samuel finished third in the rowing final in 5:17.46, winning bronze and Israel's first medal of those Games.[6] She finished behind Rachel Morris of Great Britain and Lily Wong of China.[6] After the race, she said she had wanted to hear Israel's anthem and was glad to win a Paralympic medal after such a long journey.[6]

At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Samuel carried Israel's flag at the opening ceremony.[10] Her path to the final was complicated: after winning her heat, she was disqualified due to an issue with the seat's pistons and had to qualify for the final through the repechage.[10] She ultimately won silver in the women's 2,000-meter single scull, finishing in 11:18.39, behind Norway's Birgit Skarstein in 10:56.88 and ahead of France's Nathalie Benoit in 11:28.44.[10]

At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, Samuel set a Games record of 9:58.02 in the qualifying heats, then led the PR1 2,000-meter final from start to finish, crossing in 10:25.40 to win gold.[5] She was 42 years old at the time.[5] After crossing the line, she burst into tears and later said she had feared she would be unable to sing the Israeli national anthem.[7] Her victory completed a three-Games medal progression—bronze, silver, and gold—across the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Paralympics and concluded her fourth Paralympic appearance.[7] She ruled out competing at Los Angeles 2028 and invited other athletes to inherit her place.[7]

Samuel built a consistent record at the World Rowing Championships alongside her Paralympic career. Her breakthrough came with bronze at the 2011 World Championships, just months after she first took up the sport.[1] In 2015, she defeated the reigning world champion at a World Cup event at Lake Varese and won gold in the women's AS single sculls at the World Rowing Championships in France.[3] The world title earned her qualification for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.[3] She also won bronze at the World Rowing Cup in Poznań in June 2016.[3]

At the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Florida, Samuel won silver in the 2,000-meter event, finishing in 11:20.81.[11] She placed behind Norway's Birgit Skarstein, who finished in 11:14.17, and ahead of Germany's Sylvia Pille-Steppat, who finished in 11:55.75.[11] Samuel noted after the race that the course had doubled in length from 1,000 to 2,000 meters, making it a particularly demanding contest that required great endurance, especially in strong winds.[11]

Throughout her athletic career, Samuel maintained a professional life as a pediatric physiotherapist.[5] She holds a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy and a master's degree in early childhood education from the University of Haifa.[5] She has three children; during her preparations for the Paris 2024 Games, she gave birth to her son Rom, and five months later won silver at the World Championships.[5]

Samuel has also worked to broaden awareness of disability beyond the world of sport. She founded the "Transparent Boundaries" project, an initiative designed to change teenagers' perceptions of people with disabilities.[2] She has spoken publicly about the need for Paralympic athletes to be recognized as professional athletes rather than as participants only in rehabilitation sport.[2]

In January 2025, following her retirement from international competition, the Israeli Paralympic Committee approved her appointment as director of business development and resource mobilization.[12] Samuel said she wanted to contribute to the organization that had helped her fulfill her dreams, and described Paralympic sport as a springboard from rehabilitation to a life of capability and fulfillment.[12] She also took part in the torch-lighting ceremony at the Maccabiah Games in July 2017.[3]

The Jewish Virtual Library's listing of Israel's 2016 Paralympic bronze medalists describes Samuel as a runner.[13] Contemporaneous reporting from the Rio Games identifies her third-place finish as occurring in the women's single-sculls rowing final.[6]

A 2019 ynet report contains an internal discrepancy, referring to her Rio 2016 medal as silver in its opening description but as bronze in a later passage.[2] Contemporaneous Rio coverage records that she finished third and won bronze.[6]