The Fastest Jewish Runner in the World

Gal Arad was watching the news with his family when it was reported that Arik Einstein, the famous Israeli singer and broadcaster, had died. The whole country mourned the loss.

During the broadcast, the newscaster shared that Einstein held the Israeli national record for the high jump.

At that time Gal, then 14 years old, was an excellent athlete in school. Gal’s father suggested he train for two months and try to secure the national championship in running for his age group. His father explained that this honor had stayed with Arik his whole life and had contributed to his fame. “This is something that will stay for life.”

Gal was convinced.

After training for two months, Gal was ready to compete. Just three days before the competition, his school took an overnight trip where Gal became sick. He still competed but finished in second place.

Gal trained for another season and competed as a 15-year old. Although his running had improved, he again came in second place because he had moved up one age bracket.

He didn’t give up and trained for another year. The following year, he won the national titles for youth under 18 in all the sprints events, the 100, 200 and 400 meters and reached the semi-final of the European U18 championship.

“That year, in 2017, I had a big breakthrough. I broke the Junior (under 20) national record. The following year, in 2018, I broke my own national record.”

In 2018, Gal ranked #13 in the world junior championship. He finished high school and joined the IDF. Then stagnation hit. “In 2019, I had an injury and in 2020, Covid broke out.”

As soon as Gal was released from the military, he moved to the US to attend Drake University in Iowa. In August 2022, the University of New Mexico’s coach recruited him.

“Things were initially looking up. I was in the best shape of my life when I had another injury in 2023 and was unable to compete again.”

In the summer of 2023, the coaching staff in UNM changed and a new coach arrived for track and field.

“UNM recruited a sprint coach that was unfit for coaching. UNM fired her mid-season. But the group was ruined. We started with 19 athletes on the team and by the end of the year only ten remained. I was the only Jew. The coach would scream at us, curse at us, and call us names. She suffered from insecurity, which was evident in the way she criticized the team members, especially me. I have no proof that this stemmed from antisemitic motives, but the fact that she singled me out more than anyone else was noticeable, and all the team members, as well as other coaches, were aware of it. It was not the way a coach should behave or talk to athletes.”

Meanwhile, October 7th came and rocked the world. For Gal it was uncomfortable to be Jewish on a campus surrounded by anti-Israel riots, encampments, and even antisemitic professors.

Gal’s close friends and team members appreciated and supported him, but the general atmosphere at UNM was extremely negative, and getting the constant and daily negative feedback from his coach was the last straw. “What helped me during these days was the thought that in a way I represent Israel. I understood that my way to contribute to my people fight was to keep doing what I do and try to excel.”

His coach’s tactics were the antithesis of motivation. The athletes were afraid to complain, but Gal felt confident and mature enough to confront her. In November 2023, just weeks after the October 7th massacre, Gal approached the head coach.

But the head coach was the one that hired the sprint coach and he ignored Gal concerns and continued to blindly support the problematic coach. Only few months later, when other athletes spoke up and reports of the situation reached the higher management, the sprint coach was fired.

“In November 2023 after I approached the head coach, they kicked me off the team. I was the first one to talk and the only Jew in the group. Again, I can’t prove it was because I was Jewish, but it seems that it had contributed to the behavior of the head coach and the sprint coach, because otherwise I can’t understand why I was her main target.”

Gal left the team in November 2023 and coached himself until May 2024. He surprised himself with what he was able to accomplish on his own. “That was the first season I broke my personal record since 2018 in the 100-meter dash, running 10.32 seconds. I also broke my record in the 200-meter dash (20.70) and I was nearly qualified for the European Championship.”

Gal had coaches who told him he was a dead athlete and past his prime. Critics told him to give up and asked why he even bothered trying. Gal attributed three core beliefs to his ability to stay motivated despite the odds:

1. Be honest with yourself and willing to receive positive criticism. But never let people tell you what you can or cannot do.
2. You must believe in yourself.
3. Try to surround yourself with friends and professional staff who motivate you.

Ambassador for Israel

Back at UNM, the school drastically transformed after the October 7 massacre.

“Overnight at UNM, it became horrible to be Israeli and Jewish.”

Gal described how there were hundreds of people marching and blocking the streets. “The floor of the school was full of graffiti and writings of unimaginable words.”

The professors at the school gave extra credit to students who attended anti-Israel or anti-Jewish protests. The protests took place both on and off campus. Gal lived off campus in a nearby neighborhood. “People would put stickers on windows throughout the whole neighborhood. It was inescapable.”

When he talked to the protestors, Gal understood that most of them really had no idea what they were protesting against.

He decided to take every opportunity to educate students around him. He explained, “There were dozens of times that I struck up a conversation about Israel, and they would finish the conversation saying, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know that. You lit up my mind. Now I am going to go home and read more about it.’

“Usually it was younger people protesting. I saw an older guy and he caught my eye. I was in a rush, but I had to stop to talk to him. The man was holding a sign. I said, ‘Hi there. Why are you protesting?’

“He answered, ‘Israel stole land from Palestine. The Palestinians were there first.’

“I said, ‘Oh, is that right? When did Israel steal the country?’

“He answered, ‘In 1948.’

“Actually, before 1948, the country was controlled by the UK.

“The older man said, ‘Okay, so before that.’”

“No. Before that, the country was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. And if you go back through history, there was always another country that controlled Israel going back two thousand years, which then the Jewish controlled the land with the Hashmonaim Kingdom.

“The old man asked, ‘Okay, but we can go before that. Who was there before that point?’

“I said, ‘Good point, that bring us back to the Biblical era, and you surely know that the Jews were there then.’

“He, and all the people standing around, really ended up second-guessing what they were doing.”

Gal explained to other protesters how Israel was viciously attacked, unarmed people were killed, women were brutally raped, and hundreds were kidnaped and are being held hostages by the Hamas in Gaza.

“Most protestors don’t know anything. They don’t know what happened on October 7 and they don’t know there are still hostages. They see things on TV and yes, war is something hard to watch and it has its price but you can’t judge who is right without understanding the complete picture and whole the facts, and that is what I’m trying to do whenever I get the chance: to plant doubt and curiosity in the hearts of the naïve protesters, just enough to encourage them to learn a bit more and be less influenced by propaganda.”

Gal also spoke to the provost of the university about the rampant hatred he was experiencing on campus. Walking into his office with two other Hillel students, Gal explained, “The protestors are yelling ‘Intifada,’ which literally means revolution, taking a knife and stabbing someone, killing Jews here in the U.S. You may respond that they have freedom of speech, but if we said this about a different community, we would be expelled from the university immediately. When they call for the demolition of Israel and murdering Jews worldwide, nothing happens. How does the university allow it?”

The provost apologized but explained how difficult his predicament was. “He basically said, ‘I’m sorry. We will try to figure out what to do.’ But no solution was presented.”

Gal explained that unlike universities like UCLA that have a strong Jewish community that can fight back, there is no Jewish community to fight back at UNM. “It’s very one-sided here.”

Gal’s method of protecting himself and the few other Jews there entailed taking the opportunity to speak to anyone willing to listen. “I show them the basic facts of Jewish history and what actually happened on October 7^th. I talk to people every day.”

Last December Gal graduated with high honors in Computer Science and these days he is training in a professional sprint team with coach Darryl Woodson in Austin, Texas. “I intend to continue combining working as a graduate in hi-tech with athletic training. Excelling is a way of life.”

Gal’s goal is to compete in the World Championship in Tokyo in September 2025, and then the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

He’s excited to start the next chapter of his life and to represent Israel wherever he goes. “I’m confident the right words will come to me while representing Israel because they’ll be coming straight from my heart.”