Esther Roth-Shahamorov (; born April 16, 1952) is a former

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete. She specialized in the 100-meter hurdles and the 100-meter sprint.

Early and personal life

Esther Shahamorov was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, to Bukharian Jewish parents. In 1973, she married Peter Roth, a gymnast, who became her coach. She has a son, Yaron (born 1974), who was a national champion in fencing, and a daughter, Einat. After she retired from competitive sport she became a sports schoolteacher. In 2023 it was found out she was waiting for a kidney transplant, due to genetic disease. In February 2024 she had a successful transplant.

Track career

Records

She once held simultaneously five Israeli national records. One of them is still a record and two others held for over 20 years. *Her time of 11.45s in the 100m, set at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, was broken on Sat Apr 19, 2014, by Olga Lenskiy. Lenskiy's result though was vacated later the same year due to skipping mandatory drug test after the competition. *Her time of 12.93s in the 100m hurdles, set in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

shortly after the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

, stood as a national record for 26 years, until it was broken by Irina Lenskiy in 2002. *Her time of 23.57s in the 200m, set in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

in 1975, held as a record for 29 years, until it was broken, also by Irina Lenskiy, in 2002. *Her mark of 6.14m in the long jump was a national record from 1971 to 1984. *Her record of 4837 points in the

Women's pentathlon The pentathlon or women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day (formerly two days). The distance or time for each event is converted to points via scoring tables, with t ...

was a national record from 1971 until the format was changed in 1977.

Asian Games

Roth won five

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s and one silver medal in two

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

. She won golds in 100m hurdles and pentathlon and a silver in long jump in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

, and three golds, in 100 m, 200 m, and 100 m hurdles, in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Olympics

At the

, Roth just barely missed qualifying for the final in the 100-meter sprint. She qualified for the 100-meter hurdles semifinal, but withdrew from the Games, together with the remaining members of the Israel Olympic team, after the murder of her longtime coach, Amitzur Shapira, and ten other members of the Israeli team, by Palestinian terrorists. In

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

where she was the Israeli flag-bearer, Roth became the first ever Israeli athlete to reach the finals in any Olympic event, and she is still the only Israeli Olympic finalist in track events, when she finished 6th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.04 seconds.

Maccabiah Games

Roth won the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

in the

1969 Maccabiah Games At the 8th Maccabiah Games from July 29 to August 7, 1969, 1,450 athletes from 27 countries competed in 22 sports in Israel. The final gold medal count was the United States in first place (64), Israel second (48; though it won the greatest numb ...

with a jump. She won the 100-meter race in the 1973 Maccabiah Games in 11.75, and the 100 m hurdles in 13.5 seconds. She won the 200-meter race in the

1977 Maccabiah Games At the 10th Maccabiah Games in Israel, more than 2,800 athletes from 34 countries participated in 26 different sports, including chess and bridge and for the first time badminton. The opening ceremonies were held on July 12, 1977, in Ramat Gan S ...

in 24.03; and the 100-meter hurdles in the same games in 13.50.

Awards and recognition

In 1999, Roth was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for sports. She appears in the 1999 Oscar-winning documentary ''

One Day in September ''One Day in September'' is a 1999 documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration through ...

'' in which she gave her impressions and feelings during the 1972 Munich Athletes hostages crisis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth-Shachamorov, Esther 1952 births Living people Sportspeople from Tel Aviv Israeli female sprinters Israeli female long jumpers Israeli pentathletes Israeli female hurdlers Jewish track and field athletes Olympic athletes for Israel Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 Asian Games Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Israel Maccabiah Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 1969 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1973 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1977 Maccabiah Games Israel Prize in sport recipients Israel Prize women recipients Recipients of the Olympic Order International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Asian Athletics Championships winners Asian Games gold medalists for Israel Asian Games silver medalists for Israel Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games Medalists at the 1974 Asian Games Israeli Mizrahi Jews