Shmulik Daniel has a European Championship medal to show for a career built on unlikely comebacks — though this one arrived a few hours after he had already left the water thinking he had missed the podium.
The 41-year-old Israeli para-rower crossed the line fourth in the PR1 men's single sculls final at the European Rowing Championships in Varese, Italy, clocking 9:35.95 over the 2,000-metre course. Third place on the water went to Ukraine's Roman Polianskyi.
But the Israeli delegation lodged a protest, arguing that Polianskyi had not properly fixed the strapping required in the PR1 classification, which covers rowers with the most limited trunk and leg function. World Rowing's jury upheld the protest, relegating Polianskyi to last place and promoting Daniel to bronze.
Polianskyi, competing at his first regatta since last year's world championships, had been delighted to reach the podium before the ruling went against him. "It is very hard for me because in Ukraine it's not easy to get enough nutrition, and also you cannot sleep with the sirens," he said afterward, reflecting on training conditions back home.
For Daniel, the medal is the latest chapter in a story that began far from the water. He was seriously injured in 2005, at age 20, during a military operation in the Mount Dov area on Israel's northern border, sustaining a spinal injury that left him wheelchair-bound.
He took up single sculls rowing several years later and steadily climbed the international ranks: 13th at the 2018 European Championships, then sixth at the following edition, a result that secured his place at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. He finished sixth in Tokyo and fourth at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Varese now gives him his first European Championship medal — bronze, on a course where he had finished fourth in 2021.
The result also continued a strong week for Israel's Paralympic rowing squad in Varese. The evening before Daniel's race, Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin won bronze in the PR2 mixed double sculls, with Germany taking gold and Ukraine silver in that event.
Milfelder and Shahin, Paralympic bronze medallists themselves from Paris 2024, have been among Israel's most consistent para-rowing crews over the past two seasons, and their result in Varese underlined the depth Israel now has across multiple para-rowing boat classes heading toward the next Paralympic cycle.
