Alon Mandel

Alon Mandel (Hebrew: אלון מנדל; born 23 August 1988) is an Israeli swimmer who represented Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2006, at age 18, Alon was recognized as an athletic prodigy, and postponed his mandatory army service in order to study chemical engineering at the University of Michigan in parallel to training with the varsity men's swim team at the University of Michigan, along with Michael Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman.

However, a couple of months later, it was discovered that the Greek swimmer who had won the 200 meter butterfly, Ioannis Drymonakos, had used banned substances and was therefore suspended.

[clarification needed] While in Beijing, just one day before the opening ceremony, Mandel was informed of the death of his father, who was killed in an accident at his home.

At the 2009 Israeli National Championships, Mandel remained outside the A-final[clarification needed] in the 100 meter butterfly, after finishing the prelims in 9th place.

At the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Mandel finished in 15th place in the 100 meter butterfly with a time of 53.19 seconds.

At the 2010 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Dubai, UAE, Mandel set several Israeli national records.

In the 200 meter butterfly, he set another Israeli record (1:56.67 minutes), which was broken only one heat later by Gal Nevo, who improved Mandel's time by 0.01 seconds.

Mandel also swam in the 4×100 meter medley relay team with Yakov Toumarkin, Imri Ganiel and Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or, finishing in 7th place with a time of 3:37.77 minutes, missing the Olympic criterion by less than a second.

Towards the end of his career, Mandel participated in the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Istanbul, Turkey, helping the Israeli team to finish 10th in the 4×100 medley relay with teammates Jonatan Kopelev (backstroke), Gal Nevo (breastroke), and Guy Barnea (freestyle), setting a new Israeli record of 3:32:43 minutes.