Jacob Ben-Arie

Jacob Ben-Arie was born in 1950

Jacob Ben-Arie was born in 1950 in Kibbutz Na'an, a grandson of Yerachmiel Zimbel. His parents soon moved to Kibbutz Gesher, where he contracted polio as a child. In 1962 he joined the activities of the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled.

He competed at the Paralympic Games in 1964, 1968 and 1972 and won 6 medals in swimming and wheelchair basketball. In Tokyo in 1964 he won gold in the 25m breaststroke, and in Tel Aviv in 1968 he won gold with the basketball team. He also won medals at the Stoke Mandeville Games and played at the 1978 European wheelchair basketball championship in France.

Between 1968 and 1976 he earned a biology degree at Tel Aviv University and studied psychology and biomechanics at New York University. He kept training alongside his studies.

From 1978 he worked at the telecommunications company Telrad and retired in 1998 as deputy CEO. From 2002 to 2011 he was executive director of the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled, and later became its chairman. He also represented ILAN on the board of the Israel Sports Association for the Disabled.