Shachar Sagiv (Facebook)
Triathlete Shachar Sagiv became the first Israeli athlete in history to compete in Saudi Arabia. The 28-year-old, unfortunately, was eliminated from the competition after he fell from his bike in one of the rounds.
The triathlon is comprised of three different activities: first a 1.5km swim, then a 40km bike ride, and finally a 10km run.
This was an amazing thing to happen in any event because Israel and Saudi Arabia are still officially two nations in conflict and do not have formal diplomatic relations. But recently there has been a thaw in their relations with Saudi Arabia now allowing commercial flights that go to and from Israel to fly through its air space.
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And another Arab Muslim Gulf State on the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar, has even gone so far as to allow Israeli citizens to travel there on their Israeli passports in order to attend the games of the 2022 World Cup Soccer finals. And Qatar has been anything but friendly to Israel over the years.
All of this stems from the 2020 Abraham Accords signed between Israel and the two Arab Gulf States the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. The Accords brought peace between Israel and the two Arab countries – the first two such nations to make peace with Israel that do not border the country as Egypt and Jordan do. The African Arab nations of Morocco and Sudan later joined the Accords as well which have seen a growing business and trade relationship between the various nations.
Shachar Sagiv said, “Very excited to be the first Israeli athlete competing in the country. This is proof that sport bridges nations and countries.”
Shachar Sagiv’s coach Lior Cohen said, “Shachar came to make professional history and not only diplomatic history.”
Yael Arad, who heads Israel’s Olympic committee and was herself the first Israeli to bring home an Olympic medal back in 1992, commented on the importance of the event, calling it a “very significant breakthrough.”
“In the past year we’ve seen many Arab states come to terms with the fact that hosting an international tournament means hosting Israelis,” said Arad. “This is a growing trend and the true force in normalization between nations, and especially people,” Arad added.
