Gal Zukerman

Gal Zukerman (born 17 Aug 2003) is an Israeli kite foiler. She won the Youth Sailing World Championships in 2022 and she qualified for the 2024 Olympics.

Life
Zukerman was born in Israel and she was brought up near Haifa. She was sailing from the age of five and it was not until she was on holiday in Greece that she first got to try sailing with a kite. She had wanted to do this before but her mother was concerned for her safety. The kite became important and back in Israel she took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to practice her new sport.

People advised her to try a hydrofoil and eventually she joined a course where she fell in love with being able to silently move through the water powered by a kite. Kite foiling was selected in 2019 as a new sport for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

In 2021 she competed at the Youth Sailing World Championships at Mussanah in Oman and she won. She beat the Polish kitefoiler Julia Damasiewicz. Zukerman said that because of political differences with Israel none of the finalist's national anthems were played. Everyone was friendly towards her but news of her victory was not published for a few days.

In June 2022 the Dutch kitefoiler Annelous Lammerts won the Hempel World Cup Allianz Regatta at Lelystad in light winds beating the Spaniard Gisela Pulido who took silver. Zukerman sparred with her fellow Israeli Maya Ashkenazi for the bronze position and she was successful.

She was one of nearly 90 athletes who were chosen to compete for Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics.