Artem Dolgopyat

Artem Olegovich Dolgopyat (ארטיום אולגוביץ' דולגופיאט; Артем Олегович Долгопят; born 16 June 1997) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli artistic gymnast who specializes in the floor exercise. He is the 2020 Olympic champion and the 2023 World champion on floor exercise. He also won two silver medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships on the floor exercise, and is the 2020 and 2022 European champion of that exercise. Dolgopyat will represent Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life
Artem Dolgopyat was born in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), Ukraine. Dolgopyat's father Oleg is a former gymnast, is Jewish, and Dolgopyat's mother Angela Bilan is not Jewish.

In 2009 at the age of 12, Dolgopyat immigrated with his family to Israel, where they lived in Lod. He joined the gymnastics team of Maccabi Tel Aviv where he was trained by Israeli coach Sergey Vaisburg. His parents divorced in 2012. He attended the Shevah Mofet school in Tel Aviv, Israel; however he later dropped out of high school due to language difficulties and the burden of training. He later studied at Tel Aviv University.

He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, served at the Tel HaShomer base, and became a sergeant. He lives with his fiancee, Maria Sakovich, a translator in four languages.

Early career
By the age of 12, when he moved to Israel, Dolgopyat was already a two-time national champion in Ukraine for his age group.

In August 2014, at the age of 17, Dolgopyat competed in the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, and finished 5th in vault, 7th in floor exercise, and 10th in the individual all-around event.

2015–16
On September 19, 2015, Dolgopyat competed in 'Grand Prix Osijek' in Croatia, and won the gold medal in floor exercise, scoring 14.800.

Later that year, Dolgopyat won the floor exercise in the Israeli Championship for the first time, defeating Israeli Olympian Alexander Shatilov, who later became his mentor and friend.

At the end of 2016, he took three months off from the sport, due to back pain.

2017
On April 22, 2017, Dolgopyat competed for his first time in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and finished 4th in the floor exercise with a score of 14.33, one place behind bronze medalist Shatilov.

On May 20, 2017, Dolgopyat won the silver medal in the 2017 Grand Prix Osijek after scoring 14.700.

In July 2017, Dolgopyat competed in the 2017 Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he won two gold medals in the floor exercise and pommel horse, and a bronze medal in the vault.

In October 2017, at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships held in Montreal, Canada, Dolgopyat won the silver medal in the floor exercise after scoring 14.533, behind Japan's three-time world champion Kenzō Shirai, while competing with an injured right foot. He garnered the best Israeli result ever at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships as he became the second Israeli gymnast to win a medal in the Championships (after his mentor and trainer Alex Shatilov, who won bronze medals in 2009 and 2011), and the first to win a silver medal.

He was named the 2017 Israeli Sportsman of the Year.

2018
In August 2018 at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, he won the silver medal in the floor exercise after scoring 14.466.

That year, he also won a number of medals on floor; gold from World Challenge Cup Paris, gold from World Challenge Cup Szombathely, silver from World Challenge Cup Koper, and silver from World Challenge Cup Osijek.

2019–20
At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in Stuttgart, Germany, Dolgopyat won the silver medal for the second time on floor exercise with a score of 15.200 behind Carlos Yulo of the Philippines, who scored a 15.300. Dolgopyat and Yulo were both awarded the same execution score of 8.800, but the latter had a higher difficulty score of 6.5 versus the former's 6.4, which resulted in Yulo securing this win.

That year, Dolgopyat also competed at the 2019 European Championships held in Szczecin, Poland, and won the silver medal in the floor exercise after scoring 14.900 in the final

At the 2020 European Championships in Mersin, Turkey, he won two medals; gold on the floor exercise with a score of 15.000 and bronze on the vault. Dolgopyat became the second Israeli gymnast to win a European gold. He qualified to the floor final from the second place with a score of 14.933 and finished first in the final after scoring 15.000. On the vault, Dolgopyat scored an average of 14.483 in the final and finished third.

2020 Summer Olympics
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he won gold for Israel on the floor exercise. It was Israel's first Olympic medal in gymnastics, and second-ever gold medal at the Olympics. Dolgopyat competed on the pommel horse and the floor exercise. He did not qualify to the pommel horse final after scoring 12.766 in qualifications. On the floor exercise, he qualified to the final in first place after scoring 15.200. On the floor exercise final, he scored 14.933, same as Rayderley Zapata from Spain, but finished first due to a higher difficulty score. He said: "I wanted to cry on the medal podium but couldn’t, because I was in a storm of emotions. I cried on the inside." Immediately after his win he said that his next dream was to win the medal again at the 2024 Paris Olympics. His father said he was ecstatic at his son's success, and then added "No matter what, he could’ve done much better, but we don’t judge the winners.”

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett interrupted the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting and called Dolgopyat, to congratulate him on winning his gold medal. Dolgopyat received a hero’s reception at the Tel Aviv airport upon returning to Israel.

2021–22
Along with fellow Israeli gymnastic gold medalist Linoy Ashram he was named No. 47 on The Jerusalem Post's Top 50 Most Influential Jews of 2021.

At the 2022 Senior European Championships in Munich, Germany, he won the gold medal in the floor exercise.

2023
In March 2023 he tore a ligament in his knee during training. Still, at the 2023 European Championships in Antalya, Turkey, he won the silver medal in the floor exercise. After the tournament, he took 10 weeks away from gymnastics to rehabilitate his knee injury and an Achilles tendon injury.

At the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, he won the gold medal in the floor exercise. He had withdrawn from the all-around final where he was the 8th qualifier, in order to rest before the floor final. He had been awakened the morning of his competition at 5:30 AM because of his phone was warning of multiple rocket attacks from Gaza on his home city in Israel, and then by news of hundreds of Israelis having been killed and wounded and dozens kidnapped by Hamas in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on towns in Israel. Dolgopyat decided that he wound not withdraw from the final despite the mental toll the massacre was having on him, and said: "It was very difficult for me to disconnect. When I got to the arena, I told myself that I have to be in the competition and that’s it.” He put black ribbons on the Israeli flag and on his left arm to mourn the Israeli victims. He said: "A very difficult day for our country. I finished the day as the World champion but my mind and my heart are at home." His victory was the first ever by an Israeli gymnast at an Artistic Gymnastics World Championship.  He is auctioning his prize to raise funds for the impacted Israeli communities, and said: “What is the status of a world champion worth if my country hurts? The state of Israel comes first for me.”

2024–present
Dolgopyat will represent Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in Men's individual all-around starting on July 27, 2024, with a final on July 31.

Achievements
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