(ATR) The road to the Olympics for Israeli athletes usually includes regular stops at Wingate Institute.
The 104-acre seaside campus north of Tel Aviv is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a plan to invest millions in new facilities and technology.
The Wingate Institute includes training facilities as well as classrooms and dormitories. On any day about 5000 athletes, students and staff pass through the gates of the campus.
"You can always train and develop to become better and better. In Israel we are pretty advanced, but we are always aiming for more," says windsurfer Shahar Zuberi, a London bronze medalist. He’s been coming to Wingate for years.
"Of course it helps. My body is basically my work, so I need to treat it well and professionally. So here at Wingate there is really good staff and good support," he tells Around the Rings.
Neta Rivkin, a three-time Olympian in rhythmic gymnastics says she started at Wingate when she was 12.
"I trained here many years before the Olympics, and for me it became my second home. Here I train and I sleep. This place is very comfortable. Here you have all of the conditions you need for training," Rivkin tells ATR.
She was one of hundreds of athletes, experts and government leaders attending a conference in December to mark the Wingate anniversary.
IOC President Thomas Bach offered greetings in a recorded video message to the conference.
"Over the years, Wingate hasmade important contributions in education, sports medicine and science, demonstrating the sacred role sport plays in our lives today," said.
French Olympic Committee president Denis Masseglia gave a timeline of sport preparations for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. IOC member in Israel Alex Gilady spoke on the prospects of computer-aided judging for gymnastics and other sports that require subjective decisions.
Canadian expert Roger Jackson covered the Own the Podium program launched for the VancouverOlympics. Yossi Sharabi, Director-General, Ministry of Culture and Sport described a strategy in Israel for high performance sport. Dr. Yehoshua Dekel chair of the Israeli Paralympic Committee was one of the keynote speakers. Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev closed the day long conference.
"We want this conference to be at the center of the discussion about the issues for elite sport at the Olympics," Wingate CEO Amotz Bachar tells ATR. He says the conference is a step forward in a 10-year plan to upgrade the Wingate Institute.
"We want to invest in research, to upgrade all of the facilities. We need new equipment, new technologies, in order to build a very good environment for the training of elite athletes for Israel," he says about the long-term plans for Wingate.
"Hundreds of millions of shekels will be invested over the next 10 years" by the government, with new construction to start in 2019, Bachar says.
In addition to sports training and related facilities, the Wingate Institute houses the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Reported by Ed Hula.Travel assistance from the Wingate Institute.
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