Swimmer earns Israel its 3rd medal at Rio Paralympics

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RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Swimmer Inbal Pezaro earned Israel’s third medal at the Rio Paralympic Games, which end Sunday.

Pezaro, 29, of Kibbutz Yizrael won a bronze medal on Wednesday, finishing third in the 200-meter freestyle. She reached the finals in all five of her individual events in Rio.

The Kibbutz Yizrael athlete became paralyzed in her lower torso in childhood. She began swimming when she was 5.

Pezaro won three medals in each of the previous two Paralympics, taking three bronzes in 2012 and three silvers four years earlier, while also claiming a silver and a bronze in Athens 2004.

Shooter Doron Shaziri, competing in his sixth Paralympics, and rower Moran Samuel also took home bronze medals for Israel.

Some 4,300 Paralympians competed in Rio, Brazil’s second largest city. Three weeks ago, Israeli judokas Yarden Gerbi and Or Sasson each won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics there.

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