Six Athletes Are Representing Israel in the 2022 Winter Olympics

A small but hopeful contingent of six athletes are representing Israel in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. They will compete in figure skating and alpine skiing.

Hailey Kop, a 19-year old Modern Orthodox student from West Orange, New Jersey will be skating with Israeli figure skater Evgeny Krasnopolski in the pairs competition.

As Shaked Karabelnicoff wrote in Jewish Unpacked,

“It had always been a dream of mine to skate for Israel,” Kops said in an interview. “As a Jewish religious girl raised Modern Orthodox, I know that Israel is our home. It was always part of my plan to try to skate for Israel.”

Kops and her mother became Israeli citizens in 2013 when Hailey joined Israel’s National Juniors Figure Skating team. 

“I didn’t think twice about becoming a citizen of Israel,” she said. Just being Jewish and growing up Modern Orthodox, I always had a connection to Israel even if I do live in the U.S., so to become a citizen was really cool to me.”

Aside from the gap year, Kops spent a summer in Israel and has visited multiple times, including for three national skating championships, she said.

Here are Kops and Krasnopolski skating in a 2021 competition.

Enjoy!

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