Ayelet Ohayon

Ayelet Ohayon (born October 20, 1974, in Acre, Israel) is an Israeli foil fencer.

Fencing career

She began to fence at the age of 6 because her brother competed in the sport. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=381872&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y]

European Championships

She finished 8th in the 1995 European Championships, and placed 7th in the individual foil event at the 1996 and 1997 European Championships.

Ohayon also won the gold medal at the 2000 European Championships.

Junior World Cup Championships

In her first junior world cup, she beat an Italian fencer who was favorite to win the title. At her second junior world cup, Ohayon made it to a point short of the finals. A year and a half later, she finished third at the world youth cup, taking the silver medal. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=381872&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y]

World Cup Championships

Ohayon ended 8th in the final of the World Cup in 1996, which moved her to 25th in the world rankings. [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:hwwn0P-yXXYJ:www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/4067/edition_id/73/format/html/displaystory.html+Ayelet+Ohayon&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=us] She finished in 7th place at the 1997 World Cup Championships. At the 1999 World Championships, she finished 20th. Three years later, at the 2002 Worlds, Ayelet finished 15th. She came in 3rd in the 2002 World Cup tournament.

Olympics

Ohayon has competed at three Olympiads in foil.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she competed in both the individual and team foil events. In the individual competition, she easily defeated her first round opponent, Guatemala's Carmen Rodrigues, 15-2, but then lost 15-10 in the 2nd round to No. 8 seed Sabine Bau of Germany. In Atlanta Ohayon also competed in the team foil event. The Israelis lost to China in the first round (29-45), but defeated the United States (45-39) to finish in 9th place.

Ohayon returned to the Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games (she was ranked No. 40 in the world entering the Games), and reached the 3rd round of the individual foil competition. After receiving a first round bye, she defeated Adeline Wuilleme of France in the next round (15-12). Her competition ended when she lost to Diana Bianchedi of France, 12-15.

Ohayon came into the 2004 Athens Olympics ranked 19th in women's individual foil. She drew a highly rated German opponent, Simone Bauer (ranked 13th) in the round of 32. [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:2S8tVpwDv_oJ:www.abc.net.au/olympics/2004/galleries/day5_action/pages/14_fencing.htm+Ayelet+Ohayon&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=us] Ohayon lost 15-10 and was eliminated. She took the defeat very much to heart, saying: "My preparations have gone down the drain. Everything I invested in my whole childhood has gone down the drain. My entire life from age 5 ends here." [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Ohayon.html] She came in 19th in the competition. [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:rHYWhfkYxDUJ:news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/fencing/results/3531214.stm+Ayelet+Ohayon&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us]

Links

* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Ohayon.html Jewish Virtual Library bio]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=381872&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Haaretz article]