Jacob Ben-Arie

Jacob Ben-Arie (born 1950) is a former Israeli paralympic champion who first made his mark at the 1964 Summer Paralympics, where he won a gold medal in the 25m breaststroke junior class and a bronze in the mixed medley relay open alongside Baruch Hagai and Avraham Keftelovitch. Affected by polio at a young age, he began training at the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled after it opened in the 1960s. Over the next decade, he competed in swimming, wheelchair basketball, and athletics across multiple Paralympic Games and Stoke Mandeville Games, earning additional medals including a silver in the 50m breaststroke at the 1968 Games and a silver with the wheelchair basketball team in 1972. He later became the executive director of the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled from 2002 to 2011 and eventually its chairman.