Peter Paltchik

Peter Paltchik (Hebrew: פיטר פלצ׳יק, romanized: Piter Palchik; Ukrainian: Петер Пальтчик, romanized: Peter Palchyk; born 4 January 1992) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli Olympic and former European champion judoka, competing in the under 100 kg weight category, of which he was the number 1 ranked judoka in the world. Paltchik won a bronze medal at the 2018 European Championships in Tel Aviv. In 2019 he won the Israeli championship in the +100 kg category. He then won the gold medal at the 2020 European Championships in Prague. Paltchik also won a bronze medal in the mixed team judo competition in the 2020 Summer Olympics. At the 2023 World Championships he won a bronze medal. Paltchik represented Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in judo in the men's 100 kg event and in the mixed team event, and was the flag bearer for his country, alongside swimmer Andrea Murez.

Paltchik was born in 1992 in Yalta, Crimea (Ukraine). His father died of lung cancer when he was about three months old. As a 9-month-old baby, he immigrated to Israel with his 24-year-old mother Larisa and resided in the city of Rishon LeZion, Israel. About a year later, his maternal grandparents immigrated to Israel as well. He was born in a difficult 53–54 hour birth, as he was not in the correct position, as a sick baby at a weight of 5.1 kilograms (11 lb) with crooked and fractured bones and various health problems, and the doctor recommended his family let Paltchik practice sports. His grandfather sent him to practice judo when he was four years old at the "Samurai Club" in Rishon LeZion under the guidance of Pavel Musin.

During his childhood, Paltchik's mother went to the United States to work and send money back and stayed there until he was seven. During this time, Paltchik lived with his grandparents in Rishon LeZion. His mother works as a nurse in Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel. He attended the Yigal Alon High School, majoring in communication. He served as a logistics soldier at the Tzrifin base of the Israeli Air Force. He is a student in Ono Academic College.

At the age of 16, he joined the Israeli Judo Cadet Team. At the age of 17, he won the Israel cadet championship, Junior championship, and the U23 championship that season. At the age of 18 he joined the national senior judo team under the Israel national coach and former Olympic medalist Oren Samadja. He trains at the Wingate Institute, and trains every day, twice a day. He said: "I train as if I don’t have a medal. It’s never about the physical award. Instead, it is about what you can achieve and the challenge you can overcome."

In September, Paltchik competed in the 2011 European Junior Championships in Lumel, Belgium, and  won a silver medal in the ‍–‍90 kg weight category. In June 2012, Paltchik underwent a complicated surgery in the right knee following a rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament during routine training. Because of the surgery and the rehabilitation, his shift to the senior level was interrupted until 2014.

In January 2014, Peter returned to practice as part of the senior Israeli judo team. In February 2014 he won a bronze medal in the European Open in Oberwart, Austria. In September, he again won a bronze medal at the European Open in Tallinn, Estonia. He competed in the ‍–‍100 kg category in the Israeli championship that year, and won the gold medal.

In 2015, Paltchik decided, together with the national team coach, to raise the weight category ‍–‍100 kg in order to improve his performance on the mat. In June, he participated in the 2015 European Games held in Baku, and was eliminated in the second round by Frenchman Cyrille Maret. In November, in the midst of the race to the 2016 Rio Olympic games, Paltchik took part in the 2015 Qingdao Grand Prix in China, and ripped the ligaments in his shoulder during a fight against the Mongolian Olympic champion, Naidangiin Tüvshinbayar. He had to undergo shoulder surgery and a long rehabilitation of 9 months, which resulted in him missing the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In Paltchik's return to judo in February 2017, he won a bronze medal at the European Cup competition in Rome, Italy. In March, he participated in the 2017 Baku Grand Slam and reached fifth place. At the 2017 European Championship held in Warsaw, Poland, in April, Paltchik reached seventh place. On June, a competition was held at the European Tour in Bucharest, Romania, where Paltchik won a bronze medal. Later that month, he won a gold medal in the 2017 Cancún Grand Prix in Mexico, after winning in the semifinals against the Brazilian former world champion, Luciano Correra, and beating Irish Benjamin Fletcher by a waza-ari. At the 2017 World Championships held in September in Budapest, Paltchik lost in the round-of-16 to Michael Korrel from the Netherlands who was ranked first in the world. In October, Paltchik won a bronze medal at the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, after defeating Miklós Cirjenics from Hungary.