The top 10 Jewish sports moments of 2024, from Jessica Fox’s Olympic dominance to Sam Salz’s historic college football debut

From the baseball diamond to the soccer pitch, from Vancouver to Paris, 2024 was a historic year for Jews in sports.

Jewish athletes distinguished themselves across events, venues and tiers of competition — from the Olympics to the major leagues to college ball. This year also saw notable sports moments off the field, be they in the front office or during the commercial breaks.

Some of the year’s top moments featured familiar stars in the Jewish sports world, like ace pitcher Max Fried, Olympian Jessica Fox and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Fans also met some up-and-coming Jewish athletes, like college football player Sam Salz, or watched familiar faces like BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff and USC basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb reach new heights.

Here are our top Jewish sports moments of 2024, presented chronologically — including two on the same day!

The fight against antisemitism gets the spotlight in a Super Bowl ad

As more than 100 million people tuned in to watch Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, they saw what is believed to be the first-ever Super Bowl ad focused on antisemitism.

The New England Patriots weren’t in the big game, but their owner, Robert Kraft, paid an estimated $7 million for the 30-second spot by his charity, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. The ad featured Clarence B. Jones, the former lawyer and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. who drafted King’s famous 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech. It drew mixed reviews.

The ad was one of a series by FCAS, which is known for its “#StandUpToJewishHate” campaign, that sought to promote the fight against antisemitism by connecting it to other forms of discrimination.

The group placed a number of TV ads during popular televised events this year, including one spot depicting a real-life synagogue bomb threat, which aired during the Oscars. Another, about antisemitism at campus protests, aired during the NBA playoffs. And a recent ad calling for a “timeout against hate” featured sports icons including Shaquille O’Neal and Billie Jean King.

Jessica Fox, with two more golds, steals the show in Paris

Jewish and Israeli athletes won a slew of medals in Paris this summer — 18 at the Olympics and 13 more at the Paralympics. Jews took home medals in rugby, fencing, track, swimming and numerous other competitions, while Israel returned to Olympic soccer for the first time since 1976.

One of the brightest Jewish stars of the Games was Australian paddling legend Jessica Fox, who won two gold medals in three days, bringing her career total to six, half of them golds. She won gold in both the canoe single and the kayak slalom.

Fox is the most decorated Olympic canoe slalom competitor ever, and the only Australian Olympian in history with six individual medals. She had served as one of Australia’s flag bearers at the Paris opening ceremony.

And the magic didn’t stop there. Fox’s younger sister, Noemie Fox, earned a gold medal of her own in the inaugural kayak cross event. The win put the Fox sisters in rare company among Jewish siblings to medal at the same Olympics.

Amit Elor wrestles her way to Olympic history

A Jewish Olympian dominated on the wrestling mat as well as the water: Amit Elor, a California native with Israeli parents, entered Paris as the youngest U.S. Olympic wrestler in history, and left as its youngest medalist in the sport.

Elor, an eight-time world champion, made quick work of her opponents, extending her undefeated streak of five years with a gold medal win.

Elor, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who moved to Israel, experienced both online antisemitism and the sudden deaths of both her father and a brother during the years when she broke into the elite ranks of U.S. women’s wrestling. She wrestles at the 68-kilogram weight class and in October 2023 became the youngest American wrestler — male or female — ever to win a senior world title.

After her win, Elor spoke out against antisemitism — something she had largely avoided in the lead-up to Paris.

“Eighty years ago my grandparents survived the Holocaust, but antisemitism is still all around us,” Elor said in a video posted on social media. The clip showed a comment directed against her saying “you belong in the gas chamber.”

3 Jewish players appear in one MLB at-bat

Pitcher Max Lazar’s first career strikeout on Aug. 10 was special for more than one reason.

Lazar, a Jewish Philadelphia Phillies rookie, was pitching to Jewish catcher Garrett Stubbs and struck out Diamondbacks designated hitter Joc Pederson, who is also Jewish. The moment marked a rare trifecta — in which the pitcher, catcher and batter were all Jewish. (Stubbs and Pederson both played for Team Israel at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.)

According to the Jewish Baseball Museum, it was only the third instance of a Jewish pitcher-catcher-batter combination in MLB’s more than 100-year history. And Stubbs and Lazar made up only the eighth-ever Jewish pitcher-catcher pairing, known as a battery.

It wasn’t Stubbs’ first historic moment of the season. In July, with the Phillies trailing the Oakland Athletics, Stubbs took the mound, faced fellow Team Israel alum Zack Gelof — and gave up a grand slam. It was the first-ever grand slam hit by a Jewish batter off a Jewish pitcher.

USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb notches her 300th career basketball win

University of Southern California women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb has established herself as one of the sport’s best.

Gottlieb, who in 2019 became the first women’s collegiate head coach to join an NBA staff, led USC to the No. 1 seed in the NCAA March Madness tournament this year after winning the Pac-12 Conference’s last-ever women’s championship (the conference since dissolved). USC made it to the Elite Eight in the Big Dance before losing to the University of Connecticut.

In April, Gottlieb signed a contract extension with USC that will keep her at the helm through the 2029-2030 season. And this season, USC is off to another strong start, now in the Big Ten.

On Nov. 12, Gottlieb reached another milestone: her 300th career coaching win, a 124-39 rout over Cal State Northridge. The victory set USC records for points scored in a single game and widest margin of victory.

Gottlieb is a member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. Following WNBA legend Sue Bird’s retirement in 2022, some fans turned to Gottlieb as the new face of Jewish basketball.

“I wondered if there would be someone to assume [Bird’s] place as basketball’s Jewish role model,” Sophie Bravo wrote for JTA’s partner site Hey Alma in April. “Lindsay seems to have stepped into the role seamlessly, balancing success, humility and determination, using her actions to guide and inspire.”

Sam Salz blazes a trail for Orthodox Division I athletes

Speaking of Jewish firsts, Texas A&M’s Sam Salz became likely the first-ever Orthodox Jew to appear in a Division I college football game when he took the field Nov. 16 with the Aggies.

Salz’s debut marked the culmination of a years-long journey, one that took him from Kohelet Yeshiva High School — a Modern Orthodox school in Philadelphia with roughly 100 students and no football team — to a legendary college football program that peaked at No. 15 in the national rankings this season and plays in the vaunted Southeastern Conference.

Salz, who had never played a snap of organized football in his life, let alone DI college ball, had walked onto the team in 2022 but had yet to appear in a game — in part because most college football games take place on Shabbat, when Salz doesn’t play.

But on the school’s senior night, with 42 seconds left in the game, he heard his name called and ran out on the gridiron.

“There’s probably a Jewish kid, and maybe even especially an Orthodox kid, who wants to play football, or wants to play sports, and is sitting somewhere confused about what he should do, or who’s told that he’ll never be able to do it,” Salz said in an interview. “Even getting to see me run down on that field, successful play or not, could have given him all the hope that he wanted.”

Jake Retzlaff enjoys a breakout season — and celebrates with some matzah

It sounds almost like the opening of a comedy routine: A proudly Jewish player at the flagship university of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints becomes a household name for college football fans.

But it’s no joke. For Brigham Young University quarterback Jake Retzlaff, this was a breakout season. Retzlaff goes by “BY-Jew” and made national headlines both for his on-field play and for how he publicly embraced his Jewish identity.

Retzlaff, who grew up attending a Reform synagogue in Pomona, California, is BYU’s first Jewish starting quarterback and one of only three Jewish students at the Utah school. He threw 20 touchdowns this season as he led BYU to a 10-2 record in the Big-12 Conference and a top-25 national ranking — peaking at No. 9 on Nov. 5, a program record.

And earlier this month, Retzlaff inked a sponsorship deal with Manischewitz, the Jewish food company’s first-ever sports deal. The package is set to include special-edition boxes of Manischewitz matzah emblazoned with Retzlaff’s likeness.

Max Fried signs the largest contract in Jewish baseball history

Retzlaff isn’t the only Jewish athlete with a landmark deal. Pitcher Max Fried entered the MLB offseason as one of the most coveted free agents on the market. And on Dec. 10, he got his payday.

Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees, the largest contract ever for a Jewish player as well as for a left-handed pitcher (topping David Price’s 2015 deal by $1 million in raw terms).

Fried, who turns 31 in January, has a 3.07 ERA in 151 career starts, all with the Atlanta Braves, and is a two-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner, a Silver Slugger winner and a 2021 World Series champion. In 2024, Fried posted an 11-10 record with a 3.25 ERA and 166 strikeouts in 174.1 innings.

Now, the Los Angeles native, who grew up worshipping Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, will likely spend the rest of his career playing in the city with the most Jews in the world. Fried joins fellow Jewish pitcher Scott Effross, who was traded to the Yankees in 2022 but missed all of 2023 and most of 2024 with multiple injuries. Jewish Yankees pitching prospect Eric Reyzelman is working his way through the minor leagues. Brad Ausmus, the team’s bench coach, is also Jewish.

Aerin Frankel and Quinn Hughes headline a banner year for Jewish hockey

On the same day Fried signed his massive deal with the Yankees, the Vancouver Canucks became the first team in NHL history to feature three Jewish players in the same game.

Defensemen Quinn Hughes and Mark Friedman and forward Max Sasson all played for the Canucks as they lost to the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in overtime.

The Jewish hat trick capped a banner year for Jews in hockey.

Jews featured prominently in the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which dropped the puck on New Year’s Day, led by Boston Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel, who is arguably the best Jewish player in the league.

Frankel posted a .929 save percentage in 18 games last season, but her breakout came in the playoffs, when the Northeastern alum saved over 95% of shots and earned the moniker “Green Monster” — an homage to another formidable Boston sports presence — for her clutch performances. Boston lost to Minnesota in the finals in May despite Frankel’s brick wall.

In the NHL, Edmonton Oilers star Zach Hyman put on a career performance last season, tallying 54 goals, the third-most in the NHL, plus 16 more in the playoffs. And Hughes finished with 75 assists, the third-most in the league, and won the James Norris Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL’s best defender.

During the offseason this summer, Ryan Warsofsky became the first Jewish NHL head coach in three decades, University of Denver star Zeev Buium was selected 12th overall in the NHL Entry Draft and Jack, Luke and Quinn Hughes became the first brothers to grace the cover of the flagship NHL video game.

Israeli Yaniv Bazini leads UVM to its first-ever NCAA soccer championship

Before this month, the University of Vermont had won six national championships in the school’s history — all in skiing. On Dec. 16, the Catamounts captured the NCAA Division I soccer championship, thanks in large part to Israeli star Yaniv Bazini.

Bazini, a senior from Ness Ziona in central Israel, joined UVM in 2022 and became an anchor of Vermont’s offense. This season, Bazini led the team with 14 goals — including six scored in postseason games — which is the second-most in a single season in program history. His 30 points were third-best in the UVM record books.

Beyond his offensive prowess, Bazini was also known for his proud embrace of his Israeli and Jewish identity. Last October, Bazini draped himself in an Israeli flag after scoring his first goal following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. He brought the flag back out to celebrate the national title.

Bazini told JTA he cherishes the opportunity to represent Jews on the pitch — which he hopes to do professionally, either in the MLS or abroad.

“It means everything,” he said. “I got so many messages in the past couple days of kids that are impacted, and not only my soccer, but how I show that I’m Jewish and not afraid of it. By doing ‘Shema Yisrael’ at every beginning of the game or halftime, or every time I score, every time to thank God.”

Honorable mentions

Here are a few other Jewish sports stories from the past year that are worth noting:

• Assaf Lowengart made history as the first Israeli-born position player to sign a professional baseball contract in the U.S. when he joined the Frontier League’s New York Boulders in February.
• Hapoel Jerusalem honored slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whom they called “our friend in the stands.”
• Orthodox MLB prospect Jacob Steinmetz continued his ascent through the minor leagues, joining the Hillsboro Hops, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ High-A affiliate.
• MLB veteran Kevin Pillar enjoyed a late-career resurgence with the Los Angeles Angels — and embraced his role as a Jewish ballplayer.
• Team Israel launched an American organization to strengthen its national team pipeline and support baseball’s growth in Israel.
• Náutico Hacoaj became the first Jewish soccer club to compete in Argentina’s Amateur Promotional Tournament since 1967.
• Israeli fencer Yuval Freilich won a gold medal at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix on Jan. 31, while wearing a uniform with an Israeli flag and the message “Am Israel Chai,” Hebrew for “the people of Israel lives,” written on his shoulder. Qatar, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has played home to Hamas’ leadership.

And last but not least, Jewish wrestling promoter Paul Heyman and boxing publicist Fred Sternburg were each inducted into their sport’s respective halls of fame. And the Jewish world mourned the deaths of Ken Holtzman, the winningest Jewish pitcher in MLB history, and Hall-of-Fame jockey Walter Blum, who rode to victory in the Belmont Stakes.