Henry Ohayon

Henry Ohayon was born in 1934 in Safi

Ohayon was born in 1934 and grew up in Safi, Morocco, in a family of 9 children. His father ran a grocery store. He loved cycling as a child but got a professional bicycle only at 16.

In Morocco he joined a professional cycling team and began winning major races at 21. His coach, Francis Arman, advised him to continue in France. After Moroccan independence and growing hardship for the Jews there, he moved to Israel with his parents by way of France in October 1956, and the family settled in Ashkelon.

He rode for Hapoel Ashkelon with his younger brothers Victor and Meir. He won the Israeli road championship in 1959 and 5 times in a row from 1961 to 1965. At the 1960 Rome Olympics he was hurt in a crash with a rider from Pakistan during the road race.

He retired from competitive racing in 1968 but kept racing as an amateur, last riding in the Israeli championship in 2013. In 2010 Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin gave him an award for his contribution to Israeli sport. He wrote an autobiography and died on 27 October 2023 in Ashkelon.