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Just a couple of metal scraps, please By Rami Hipsh Tags: Israel BEIJING - It's two days before the Olympics, and the Israeli athletes are keeping mum. They are leaving the media spotlight to professionals - coaches, managers and businesspeople - who feed the media's hunger for medal estimates and the like. The pomp and circumstance of the Games have also been left to the professionals. Two opening ceremonies will be held today, to the delight of Israeli delegation officials. Advertisement In the afternoon, a flag ceremony will be held to unfurl the Israeli banner in the Olympic Village, an official acknowledgement of the delegation's arrival. Several hours later, President Shimon Peres will visit the athletes. This time around, as in recent Olympiads, the little-discussed but well-known goal of the Israeli delegation is to bring home a couple of pieces of precious metal. Not even a few - just one or two will suffice to inflate the chests of sports fans back home. Gili Lustig, head of the government's Elite Sport Department, estimates that one of these will have to come from the sailing team of Udi Gal and Gideon Kliger. The pair is of world-class caliber to be sure, but their focus has been diffused by a recent, utterly preventable scandal involving Gal's use of the innocuous, yet prohibited, hair loss medication sold as Propecia. The other medal, Lustig believes, will have to come from either judoka Arik Zeevi or the tennis duo of Andy Ram and Yoni Ehrlich, whose flight yesterday from Hong Kong to Beijing was delayed due to a typhoon (see story below). "If we don't bring home a medal, it will be a failure," Israel Olympic Committee director-general Ephraim Singer said bluntly. "We have been part of this family since Barcelona in 1992," he said, referring to Israel's first ever Olympic medalists, judoka Yael Arad and Oren Smadja. The swim team, most of the athletes of which arrived yesterday from Japan, had its first training session yesterday along with athletes from a melange of countries. "We won't see the finals," coach Leonid Kaufman told his swimmers, in a puzzling display of frankness. The swimmers have all grown beards in recent weeks - army reservist-style - a final luxury they are allowed ahead of the full-body shave they will undergo before competition to make their bodies drag-free. These swimmers, training as if their life depended on it while their coach dismisses their chances, illustrate the paradoxes that abound in Beijing. On one hand, there are traffic jams and soot, on the other there is accessibility. Visitors are offered a luxurious air-conditioned shuttle that takes 10 minutes to travel from the pool to the stadium, a trip that takes two minutes on foot. The dilemma facing the visitor is choosing which is the better route - the slow shuttle or the suffocating air. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Staying out Rice on possible IDF Iran strike: U.S. has no veto over Israeli military operations. Ganei Tallywood Hamas transforms former Gaza settlement into movie lot.

Read & React Israel to free more than 150 Palestinian prisoners as gesture to Abbas Responses: 106 Rights groups slam 'disgraceful' minor charge over shooting of bound Palestinian Responses: 146 Israel to Hezbollah: We won't tolerate arms smuggling Responses: 133 Al-Jazeera apologizes for 'unethical' coverage of Kuntar release Responses: 92 Rice on possible IDF Iran strike: U.S. has no veto over Israeli military operations Responses: 88 More Headlines 02:44 Israel protests planned Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkey 00:35 Barak: Israel-PA peace deal unlikely in 2008 00:40 PRC: Gaza truce may end in 3 weeks if no progress on crossings 18:33 Rice on possible IDF Iran strike: U.S. has no veto over Israeli military ops 02:40 Peres singled out for honor in Olympic opening ceremony 02:34 Gaza women gives birth to quadruplets, husband not allowed into Israel 01:56 Ultra-Orthodox 'Modesty Guard' suspected in beating of J'lem woman 00:59 Three killed as small plane crashes at Haifa airport 01:43 Ministers to meet Monday on policy for release of Palestinian prisoners 00:59 Reputed mob boss arrested over Bat Yam beach murder 20:49 Israel issues tenders for building of West Bank, East Jerusalem homes 22:19 Jewish World / Jewish education is expensive, but worthwhile 23:02 VIDEO / Hamas transforms former Gaza settlement into movie lot 23:34 Gaza students make personal appeal to Rice over revoked visas 01:03 Two days before his first Olympics, Israeli swimmer learns of father's death Previous Editions Select Day 07 aug 06 aug 05 aug 04 aug 03 aug 01 aug 31 jul 30 jul 29 jul 28 jul 27 jul 25 jul

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