Ziv Better () is a former Paralympic swimmer representing

Israel at the Paralympics Israeli athletes have participated in the Paralympic Games since 1960. History Israel first competed in 1960, at the Summer Games in Rome, Italy. In total, Israel has won 133 gold medals at the Summer Paralympic Games. The most successful ...

. Better was born in

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Lehavot HaBashan Lehavot HaBashan () is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Hula Valley around ten kilometres southeast of Kiryat Shmona, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village ...

. During his military service with the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) he served as an officer in

Golani Brigade The 1st "Golani" Brigade (, ''Hativat Golani'') is an Israeli military infantry brigade. It is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. It is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Is ...

. Better was injured in 1987 by a mine while attempting to rescue one of his soldiers, Doron Shaziri, while fighting in the Lebanon War. As a result of his injury he was blinded in his left eye and lost approximately 90% of his vision in his right eye. Shortly thereafter, he started swimming and soon reached a competitive level. By 2004, Better had participated in eight European championships, four world championships and four

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. At the

1992 Summer Paralympics The 1992 Summer Paralympics (; ) were the ninth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. In addition, the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with mental handicap were held immediately after the regular Paralymp ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, he won two silver medals and two bronze medals, and in the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

, he won three bronze medals. He has competed five Summer Paralympics from 1992 to 2008. Better works as a Systems Analyst, and is married and a father of three.

References

External links

* 1965 births Living people Israeli male swimmers Paralympic swimmers for Israel Paralympic silver medalists for Israel Paralympic bronze medalists for Israel Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in swimming S12-classified para swimmers 20th-century Israeli sportsmen {{Israel-sport-stub