Public lifeאילנה קרטיש

Ilana Kratysh

Ilana Kratysh is an Israeli freestyle wrestler who became the first Israeli woman to wrestle at the Olympic Games, in 2016.

born 1990First Israeli woman Olympic wrestlerEuropean Championship silver medalsSilver at 2015 European Games

Born: 6 July 1990, Haifa
Occupation: amateur wrestler
Party: Israel Our Home

Ilana Kratysh was born in 1990 in Haifa

Kratysh was born in Haifa in 1990, about an hour after her parents Alexander and Galina arrived in Israel from St. Petersburg. She grew up in the Kiryat Eliezer neighborhood and attended Ironi Alef high school. Her father had coached judo, and she began judo at age 5.

She served in the Israel Defense Forces, where a judo injury led her to switch to wrestling. She also completed an instructors course at the Wingate Institute.

Kratysh won silver medals at the European Championships in 2013, 2014 and 2016, and at the 2015 European Games in Baku. In 2013 she won a Grand Prix event in Italy, where her Egyptian opponent was suspended after refusing to shake her hand and allegedly biting her. In 2016 she qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and lost in the first round.

She is a member of Yisrael Beiteinu and was elected to the Haifa city council in 2018, leaving it in December 2018. In 2019 she was 15th on the party's Knesset list. In 2025 she was appointed to the board of the community center network in Nesher.