NANTERRE, France – Israeli Olympian Andi Murez won’t have time to stay in Paris and see the sights.
When the veteran swimmer wraps up her third Olympics this week, she’ll head almost straight to Minnesota to begin her next big project: She’s starting her psychiatry residency program at the Mayo Clinic, and she’s already arriving a little late.
Murez eventually wants to help implement a mental health program for all of Israel’s national teams — and given the crisis in the Middle East, she knows the time is right now.
“After the war, in addition to the sporting stress, there will be a huge need,” said Israeli swimming technical advisor David Marsh.
“Andi represents a lot of what is good about our sport. As she progressed in improving her swim times, she progressed in her career goals and at the same time became a confident woman making a difference in the world.”
Murez, 32, is a free sprint specialist who will compete in the heats of the 4×100 meter mixed medley relay on Friday at La Defense Arena. Chosen as Israel’s female representative to carry the flag at the opening ceremony, it is her only event at the Paris Games.
Somehow, she has balanced medical school and professional swimming in her home country, graduating from Tel Aviv University in the spring of 2023 after taking a break from coursework to train for the delayed Tokyo Olympics.
Although Israel’s sports governing body, the Israel Athletics Association, regularly discusses the importance of mental health support across its national team programs, everyone is excited that Murez will become a leader in the efforts. She already has a research project underway and her goal is that one day annual mental health exams will go hand in hand with athletes’ annual physical exams.
Additionally, she plans to translate a mental health survey from the International Olympic Committee into Hebrew. It looks at all the different components of well-being, such as mood, sleep, diet, drugs and alcohol, she said.
“Looking at the elite athletes on the national teams and just creating a foundation of mental health for Israeli athletes, because nothing like that really exists right now,” she said, “so I feel like that would be a good starting point.”
Murez received permission from the Mayo Clinic to delay his July 1 start until after the Olympics, and Murez is grateful for that support. She plans a quick stop in Los Angeles to visit family before heading to Rochester.
Murez went to medical school at Stanford and graduated in 2013. She found that her studies give her a much-needed break from the pressures of the pool and competition — not to mention the perspective that if one thing doesn’t work out, she can still turn to the other.
“This year, as I was training, being able to get out of the pool and think about other things and do other things, just being able to step away and think about something else really helped me,” she said. “It was crazy that I was in medical school and the Olympics and doing both, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend such intense passions in two different areas, but I think there’s something about having balance.”
Murez will compete in her relay with current Stanford swimmer Ron Polonsky, one of those athletes she hopes to positively influence.
“It’s amazing. It’s always good to have someone experienced you can go to for advice,” he said. “I’d be happy to work with her, the more (focus on mental health) the better.”
And Murez developed his own “coping strategies.” Mostly, it relies on experience.
“I have a career path that I’ve set for myself,” she said, “so it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t perform as well as I want.”
In mid-July, during training camp in Naples, Italy, the Israeli swimmers held a team meeting and the coaches mentioned how some past Olympians could offer some advice to young people who have never before been on such a big stage.
Murez pondered this all day and realized that she almost felt like a newbie experiencing it all again.
“Because I went to medical school and stepped away from swimming for a while, I feel like there might be a similarity between my first Olympics and this one,” she said. “I feel like there’s this gratitude and just enjoying the process of this.”
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