Cal Sports Report

Cal-Affiliated Swimmer Andi Murez Is Flag-Bearer for Israel

Murez smiled and waved during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics despite tight security for Israeli athletes

Jake Curtis

Andi Murez
Andi Murez / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics
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Andi Murez, a member of Cal’s postgraduate swimming training group, was the female flag-bearer for the Israel contingent at Friday’s Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

It’s been a challenging Summer Games for the Israeli athletes as fans have been booing them during the first two days of Olympic competition because of the Israeli government’s military conflict with Hamas and the war in Gaza.  An enormous amount of security protection has been afforded the Israeli athletes, and that level of police protection and other security measures are likely to continue throughout the Games. Iran, the Palestine Olympic committee and several rights groups in the United States called for Israel to be banned from the Olympics. But the Israelis are competing, albeit in difficult situations.

However, Murez was smiling and waving in the rain as she held the Israeli flag along with judoka Peter Paltchik as the Israel contingent floated down the Seine on its boat.

Murez will be competing in the women’s 4x100 freestyle relay representing Israel.

This is the third Olympics for Murez, who graduated from Stanford, but has spent the past year preparing for the Olympics as part of the Cal postgraduate swimming training group under the direction of Cal swimming coach Dave Durden. The 29-year-old Murez combined her training for the Olympics with medical school.

Murez grew up in Los Angeles, but she immigrated to Israel in 2014, gained Israeli citizenship and resides in Netanya, Israel.

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Jake Curtis

JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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