Quick Facts
Biography
Lydia Hatuel-Czuckermann (born August 15, 1963, in Casablanca, Morocco) is an Israeli fencer. One of Israel's top female fencers, she competed in the foil event at the 1984, 1992, and 1996 Olympiads. Her fencing career started at the age of 8, and she maintained an international ranking until 2004, and she still competed at the national level in 2012.
Fencing career
Israeli champion
Hatuel-Czuckermann first won the Israeli national title in 1979, when she was sixteen. She eventually won the title more than 20 times, and was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Olympics
She missed her first chance at the Olympics at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games because of the international boycott. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, she won all six of her bouts in the first round, but was eliminated in the second round. She finished in 26th place. She did not compete in the 1988 Seoul Olympics because the fencing competition fell on Yom Kippur.
At the 1992 Barcelona Games she finished in 23rd place. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, in which she was seeded number 12, she won her first match over Felicia Zimmerman of the USA, but lost 15-13 to number 5 seed Monika Weber-Koszto. She finished in 13th place. She also competed in the team foil event, along with Ayelet Ohayon, Lilach Parisky, and Ira Slivotsky. The Israelis, who were seeded number 9, lost to China in the first round (29–45), but defeated the United States (45–39). They finished in 9th place.
World Championships and World Cup
In 1991, she finished 8th in the World Championships and in 1996 she was ranked 8th in World Cup . She finished 73rd in the foil at the 1999 World Championships.
European Championships
She reached the semi-finals at the European Championships in 2002.
Maccabiah Games
She won the bronze medal in the individual foil competition at the 2001 Maccabiah Games.
Public activity
Sports
In 1996, right after the Atlanta Olympics, she was among the founders of the Israeli Olympic Athletes Committee, and retained her membership until 2009.
Between 2004 to 2009 she was a member of the Olympic Committee of Israel. and from 2010 to 2012 she served as Chairman of the Israeli Fencing Association.
Politics
In 2004 she joined the campaign for the Acre, Israel mayorship and helped him win the election.
In 2012 she was among the organizers of the Gilad Shalit Cycling for Peace ride.
Family
She is the sister of Israeli Olympic fencer Yitzhak Hatuel (who competed for Israel in the foil at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games), and aunt of Israeli Olympic fencer Delila Hatuel and Israeli fencer Maor Hatuel.
In 1989 she married Robert Czuckermann and they have four children: Idan Czuckermann (Israeli National Fencing Champion), Matan Czuckermann (Israeli National Fencing Champion), Niran Czuckermann, and Leehe (Chen Veronique) Czuckermann.