Alex Gilady

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Alex Gilady
Alex Gilady during the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
Born(1942-12-09)9 December 1942
Died13 April 2022(2022-04-13) (aged 79)
London, England
Occupation(s)Journalist, sports official
OrganizationInternational Olympic Committee (1994–2022)

Alex Gilady (9 December 1942 – 13 April 2022) was an Israeli journalist and sports official.

Personal life[edit]

Gilady was born on 9 December 1942[1] in Teheran, Iran.[2] Gilady was the son of a Polish Jewish family who had fled during the Second World War, arriving to what was then Palestine, with his parents, and grew up in Ramat HaSharon.[citation needed]

Gilday studied at the Naval College, Mevo'ot Yam, Michmoret (Israel).[1]

Gilady died on 13 April 2022 in London, England from lung cancer, aged 79.[3]

Career[edit]

From 1964, Gilady worked as a journalist.[1]

Sports career[edit]

Gilady became a sports commentator for television in 1968. From 1981 to 1996, he was vice president of the channel NBC Sports, and from 1985 to 2008 he was the Chairman of the Television Commission of the IAAF. Gilady was involved in the foundation of the Israeli media company Keshet from 1993 to 1999. In 1994, Gilady became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was a member of the Commission for Public Relations and Social Development through Sport and the Commission for Communication. In 1996, he was Senior Vice-president of NBC Sports. From 2004 to 2019, he was Chairman of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) TV Council. In 2005 he was President of media company Keshet. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by the University of Haifa. In 2020, Gilady was vice-chairman for the Coordination Commission for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.[1]

Controversies[edit]

In 2017, Gilady temporarily resigned from his office as president of the Keshet Group after a rape accusation was made against him. The crimes were said to have been committed sometime between the 1970s and 1990s and were denied by Gilady.[4] In January 2018, Gilady submitted a lawsuit to a Tel Aviv court against Oshrat Kotler, a broadcaster at Channel 10 Israel, and also against Neri Livneh, a journalist at the Haaretz newspaper. In 2019, he reportedly withdrew the lawsuit against the two women who publicly accused him of sexual harassment.[5] Gilady was a supporter of the IOC's decision to postpone the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.[6]

Honours[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Alex Gilady". The International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  2. ^ Shaviv, Miriam (7 August 2012). "Is Alex Gilady the villain in the minute of silence defeat?". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  3. ^ Former Israeli TV executive and Olympic official Alex Gilady dies at 79
  4. ^ Toi Staff (21 January 2019). "Olympic ethics panel closes sexual harassment probe into Israeli IOC member". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  5. ^ Butler, Nick (10 January 2018). "Gilady files lawsuit against women who accused him of sexual harassment". Inside The Games. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  6. ^ Sturm, Uriel (25 March 2020). "Israel backs decision to postpone Tokyo Games". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 3 March 2021.