Danielle Frenkel

Danielle Frenkel (; born September 8, 1987) is an Israeli high jumper. She was the first female Israeli to clear 1.90 meters, and the only woman who cleared more than 1.90 meters in international competition.

Biography Danielle Frenkel was interested in being a professional dancer, and trained for years as a teenager with the Bat-Dor Dance Company. Two months after she began her army service, as a guide at Yad Vashem (a memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust), Israeli high jump coach Anatoly Shafran, who had seen her jump in a high school competition when she was 14, began an effort to convince her to jump competitively. She is a law student at the Interdisciplinary Center. Her nickname is the “Gravity Bender”.

High jumping career In 2007, when Frenkel began her training with Shafran, she jumped 1.69 meters.

In January 2011, Frenkel twice set a new Israeli national indoor record, at 1.87 meters and 1.90 meters. In March, at the European Indoor Championships in Paris, she set an Israeli record of 1.94 meters in qualifying. In the final, she reached fourth place with a jump of 1.92m, another best ever achievement for an Israeli woman. In July 2011, she became Israeli national champion for the second consecutive year, with a jump of 1.89 m. In August, she had a disappointment at the World Championships in Daegu, as she jumped only 1.85m and failed to qualify. Her season best outdoors was 1.90m, set in June at Neurim.

In June 2011, Frenkel finished fourth in the triple jump at 12.24 meters at the European Team Championships group three in Iceland.

Championships summary