PALTCHIK Peter

General
FAMILY INFLUENCE
Born in Crimea, he and his mother moved to Rishon Letzion, Israel, when he was age nine months. They were joined by his grandparents on his mother's side about a year later. He was then brought up by his grandparents after his mother moved to the United States of America for work. It was during this period that he took up judo, and his grandfather insisted that he should focus on the sport completely. "He was an officer in the Russian submarine navy, so he was and still is a very, very tough man. Everything he taught me was how to be tough and how to be strong in life. He always said that life is not going to be easy. My grandfather always taught me that I should be professional in one thing and be the best at it. And that's what I did. He didn't let me do anything else - no different sports - only judo. When he was at home, he tried to coach me. When I was home and not playing with my friends, I was training with my grandfather." (Facebook page, 16 Feb 2020; wharton.upenn.edu, 18 Jul 2019)

NEARLY QUITTING
He considered walking away from judo in 2011 while rehabilitating from a serious knee injury. He had to take on a number of jobs teaching and coaching young people and also worked in a bar, where a chance meeting with Israel national judo team coach Oren Smadja gave him the motivation to keep going. "He said to me, 'Peter, you should leave everything, all your jobs, all your side jobs, you should leave them and come back to the team. Come back to the national team because you have the potential to be an Olympic champion'." (wharton.upenn.edu, 18 Jul 2019)