Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Native name | جوان قبطي | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Palestinian citizen of Israel | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] Jerusalem [2] | June 6, 1990 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | breaststroke | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Jerusalem United | |||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | University of Missouri | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jowan Qupty ("koop-tee", Arabic : جوان قبطي, Hebrew : ג'ואן קופטי; born June 6, 1990) is a Palestinian-Israeli swimmer. [1] [2] His hometown is Jerusalem. [2] He swims the breaststroke.
He is a three-time Israeli champion in the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. He and Olympian Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or were high school roommates.
Qupty started swimming at a Jerusalem YMCA. [3] Swimming in Israel as a youth, his team was a mixture of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. [4]
He established records in the 200 m breaststroke in the Israeli national age group for ages 14, 15, 16, and 17. [3] At age 15, he won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke junior division at the 2005 Maccabiah Games. [3]
Qupty attended high school at The Bolles School, in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was 2007 Times-Union All-First Coast Florida Swimmer of the Year, and graduated in 2008. [1] [2] [3] [5] He won the Florida high school swimming state 100 yard breaststroke championship (57.27 seconds) for the Bulldogs. [3] At 17 years of age, Quipty was ranked # 1 in the United States in the 200 yard breaststroke. [2] He missed most of the 2008–09 swim season due to a shoulder injury.
Qupty and fellow Israeli swimmer Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or had known each other when they were children, and swum together for the Jerusalem United swim club in Israel. [3] [6] They attended Bolles together, where they were roommates for two years, swim team teammates, and became best friends. [3] [4] [6] [7] [8] Qupty's father, commenting on the friendship and teamwork between his Christian Arab Israeli son and his son's Jewish Israeli roommate/teammate, said: "Just to see them together after the race jumping and hugging each other; they were so happy. I was looking at them through my tears. Coming from our part of the world, you don't see that." [4] The younger Qupty observed that "people were amazed all the time" that he – a Palestinian – and a Jew could coexist, and Shapira Bar-Or said: "It shows how simple the situation is. If I can live with a Palestinian guy, I'm sure in our country we can live with a couple millions of Palestinians and Israelis together." [6]
In July 2009, he won a bronze medal in 200 m breaststroke (2:24.43), behind Israelis Tom Beeri and Daniel Malnik, in Swimming at the 2009 Maccabiah Games. [9] In December 2010, while a junior at University of Missouri, he established the Mizzou Invitational meet record in the 200 y breaststroke(1:59.56). [10]
In November 2011, he was training in hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [11]