Efraim Zinger, the secretary general of the Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI) says he hopes to take at least 40 athletes to London and believes it is about time that a woman brings home a medal having failed to do so since the Games at Barcelona in 1992.

He said: “Fifty per cent of our athletes were female in Athens and Beijing so it’s about time a female athlete brought a medal home.

"We have a number of good athletes that have won European and World Championships."

The only Israeli woman to win an Olympic medal since the country made its Games debut at Helsinki in 1952 was Arad, a judo player, who claimed silver in the women's half middleweight division.

Zinger has identified the most likely candidate to follow in her footsteps.

He said: "We have a great hope in gymnastics where we have an outstanding young athlete in Alex Shalitov who reached the finals in Beijing."

Israel has competed in every Olympics since Helsinki - apart from Moscow in 1980 when it joined the United States led boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - and won a medal at every Games since Barcelona.

Windsurfer Shahar Zubari claimed Israel’s only medal at the last Olympics in Beijing, taking the bronze after finishing third.

Zinger said: "Medals are the most important aspect as any medallists will reflect Israeli society at its best.

"We want to keep our place in the prestigious place of countries that win medals.

"Hopefully, London will be our sixth in a row."

Israel employs strict qualification standards and has controversially left figure skater Tamar Katz (pictured) out of its squad for this month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver after she failed to finish among the top 14 at the European Championships despite having qualified for the Games in other international competitions.

In the lead-up to the Games in Beijing two years ago, Israeli tennis star Dudi Sela was ranked 71st in the world - well within the top 100 required to qualify for the Olympics.

But because Sela fell short of Israel’s own standards - he needed to be among the top 50 in his sport to qualify - he was forced to stay home.

Zinger argues that while some Israeli athletes are left behind, the policy  has enabled Israel to invest the lion’s share of its resources into the athletes the OCI thinks have a chance at winning medals.

He said: "Until the late 1980s, Israel was sending teams just to participate.

"We decided that we are going to win."

There are no plans to change the hardline policy before London 2012, Zinger insisted, despite the criticism that Katz's omission has attracted in Israel.

He said: "Since1992, we have had a very specific qualification process and every year since, we’ve come home with medals.

"We are going to the Olympics to win, not just to participate.

"The Olympics are very important to Israel.

"London has special meaning to us for several reasons: it will be broadcast on prime time television, it is not far from Israel so we can expect many people to come and support us and, thirdly, there is a significant and strong Jewish support there.

"We hope to give people a once-in-a-lifetime experience as the Olympics is the greatest event the world of sport has to offer.

"In the next two-and-a-half years, all Israeli athletes will come to London to train or compete.

"London’s Jewish community has a big part to play and it will be great to see our supporters giving the athletes the feeling that they’re playing on their home ground."


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