Israeli hope in the pool: Leah Polonsky breaks records

The 22-year-old Olympic swimmer Leah Polonsky came to her career for her latest college championship with the aim of qualifying for the first time in the 200 Yard mix. Polonsky not only reached his goal, but also ended the competition with a new personal balance and a historical bronze medal for Israeli swimming. “It was a crazy feeling to break my personal record and win a medal,” says Polonsky to speak. “I didn’t even know that it was a historic medal. After I said it, it gave me even more motivated to continue the street.”

Winning the bronze medal was not a one -time transcendence moment, but another top point of a long and challenging process that has been subjected to the past four years. Polonsky improved her swimming skills, strengthened the mental dimension, became Europe champion and fulfilled her dream of participating in the Olympic Games.

The College Championship took place in the federal government and Washington. Every end of the competition has qualified for around 30 best swimmers in the best colleges in the USA.

Polonsky reached the early ointment and knew that this was her last opportunity to qualify for the final. She stopped the watch with a new personal record of 1: 51.91 minutes and finished second. “I came at the beginning and just said to myself that I would do it with all his power and I sponge very quickly. I broke the climax in a second and half, and it was really surprising. After ending the ointment, I said to myself: ‘Wow, I didn’t expect me to be so quickly.

In the last ointment, Polonsky was mixed between Tori Huska, the 100 -M butterfly master, and Alex Walsh, the 200 -M -Olympic champion. “It was always my dream to swim with them at the same time. I am her fan and I always look at what you do. But I said it was not the time to be her fan. I am there because I deserve to be there. I come to compete, and I will treat you like any other competitor and I will just do it.”

Polonsky continued in the last ointment when her wonderful ability broke her personal record on the way to the bronze medal and ended 1: 51.51 minutes. The Israeli swimmer Fayette gave the end of the two Olympic medalists who were ready in front of her: Huska won Gold and Welsh for money.

The Happy Polonsky managed to experience an exciting ending of her college career and summarized the experience at the end of the ointment. “It is a feeling that you cannot describe in words, it is my goal in the past four years and I am glad that I did it last year. It was a really exciting ointment that swimming between two Olympic medalists, a dream that was true – and it was fun to fight with you and all other girls at the end.

Further to the Polonsky competition, the last rose rose again, this time in 200 meters, Hof rowing, where it took fourth place and touched another medal. “I continued to compete with the whole power. It is an overcrowded ointment and it will just go for everything.”

“The stars worked for me”

Polonsky was born in Haifa and grew up, began swimming at the age of 3 and joined the Maccabi Haifa Club at the age of 6. Next to her trains and swims in the club and the team of her biggest brother in her year Ron Polonsky. At a young age she was in her strong ointment, 200 meters personally. In 2017 she broke into the international arena with two silver medals in 200 meters of personal and 100*4 mixed couriers at the European Youth Festival in Hungary. Two years later, she continued to impress the bronze medal in 200 meters in the European Championships for girls in Russia.

Four years ago, she went to Cal Berkeley University in California. Polonsky arrived in a difficult personal and sporty period in the USA after missing the Tokyo 2020 game criterion. At first it was really difficult because it is a new language, new people, everything is new and far away from home. “

But Polonsky was not broken. She continued to work hard in the pool and outside. The main goal for your eyes is to reach the criterion for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Polonsky’s moment of truth came at the European Championship in Serbia. This was the recent opportunity to personally determine the time in the Olympic criterion in 200 meters. She qualified for the final and began to prepare for the ointment. A few moments before the start, a storm started in the open pool. The swimmers that were already in the final preparations were sent back and the ointment was rejected until a new message.

“When I got there, after I could not determine the criterion in the competitions before, and I was thought: ‘I did what I could and would.’

In these moments of the pressure, which of course only increased through the uncertainty about the ointment, the mental strength developed by Polonsky. “It was a combination of many thoughts, but then I said inner peace: ‘I know how to swim quickly, in the USA I swam in an open pool in the days of a flood and a strong spirit. No matter what happens, it just doesn’t bother me, my goal.”

When the competition was renewed, the storm was still raging, the rain went down, but nothing heard on the way to fulfill her dream. Exactly under the most difficult conditions, she broke her personal highlight, stopped the watches for 2: 11.18 minutes and won the silver medal.

“The stars worked for me!” Polonsky says: “It was everything I wanted and everything I expected. I worked for so many years and every time I tried to imagine how the feeling would be when I was finally in the criterion.

With Anastasia Gorbanko in the European Championship. “She saw that I was in the criterion and very happy for me.

Her good friend Anastasia Gorbanko won the gold medal in the ointment and was the first to get the ticket for the play ticket in Paris. “Nastia and I grew up together, she is one of my best friends, even outside the pool. She saw how much I invest and how much I really want to achieve for the Olympic Games, and she also wanted me to be there with her.

The European European Championship was the most successful in the selected story with nine medals, four of them gold. In addition to the personal medal, Polonsky was also part of the 200*4 -mission quartet with Gorbanko, Daria Golovatic and Ayala Spitz, who won the gold medal with a new Israeli record of 7: 51.83 minutes.

“We were a really coherent team. We came to the championship with the aim of reaching the Olympic criterion. In the European Championships, and for me it was wow, which is crazy to achieve such a performance.

The mission team with the medals. “We grew up together and have been together in the training camps and competitions over the years.

In summer, Polonsky reached the goal that Paris Games marked throughout his career, the largest phase of the swimming industry. “After I stood in the criterion, I was happy. I couldn’t stop smiling for about a month. It was probably just about and didn’t think I’m really there.”

Paris took part in three brigades: 200 meters free of charge, 200 meters personally and in the 200*4 Mission team. “It was really fun. In my first ointment I came out and just saw the whole audience, I looked around and told myself, ‘or May Gad doesn’t make sense what is going on here.’

Polonsky is aimed at his next big goal, the Singapore World Championship. “My success in the College Championship gave me more motivation for a sequel. I improved last year and would like to see how I will organize a competition in the long pools.”

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