Israel's national swimming coach Leonid Kaufman has offered an explanation for one of the more surprising storylines of the European Aquatics Championships in Paris: how Anastasia Gorbenko, the reigning continental champion over 200 metres medley, left the pool without a single medal. Speaking to ONE, Kaufman said the 23-year-old had been battling "a sequence of unplanned injuries and illnesses" through her buildup to the meet.
"It's like the first pancake," Kaufman told ONE, reaching for the well-worn saying about a batch of pancakes rarely coming out right on the first attempt. "It never comes out right in the pan — only the second, third and so on." He tied Gorbenko's setbacks directly to her adjustment to a new life, training load and academic schedule in her first year of US college swimming.
Gorbenko went into the championships as top seed and defending European champion in the 200m individual medley, but finished the final in 2:11.87 — off the pace behind winner Ellen Walshe of Ireland — and left the event without a medal. She fared little better in the 400m medley, an event she has also won continentally in the past, placing seventh in 4:45.07.
It marked an unusually barren championships for a swimmer widely regarded as Israel's greatest, an Olympic finalist at both Tokyo and Paris and the holder of multiple world and European titles. Gorbenko began racing for the University of Louisville this year, her first season inside the US collegiate system, a transition Kaufman pointed to as the root of her physical troubles.
No Israeli swimmer reached the podium at the Paris championships, held August 10-16 at the Paris Aquatics Centre, though several advanced through to semifinals and finals across the week, according to ONE.
One bright spot was Tomer Shuster, who Kaufman singled out for a marked step forward. Shuster clocked an Israeli record of 24.36 seconds in the 50m backstroke, good for fourth place, shaving three-tenths off the national mark that had stood since 2016.
Kaufman argued the disappointment should be read in context rather than as a red flag. He said he expects Gorbenko to bounce back next season, and that the grounding she is getting in the American collegiate system will ultimately serve her well as Israeli swimming builds toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Kaufman is not a new face on the Israeli pool deck. He returned to the national team job this year having previously led the program between 1994 and 2016, a stint that included work as part of Israel's coaching staff across five Olympic Games.
Despite the medal drought in Paris, Kaufman said he remains "cautiously optimistic" about where Israeli swimming is heading, pointing to the emerging depth behind Gorbenko as evidence the program is not solely reliant on its biggest name.
