PARIS – Ayla Spitz fell in love with swimming as a young girl sitting next to her twin sister Zoe and their maternal grandmother Renee Kasner at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Kasner’s hometown of Omaha.
Thursday morning, Spitz, the former Newport Harbor High and Cal All-American, and later a school record-setter at Northwestern, dove into Olympic waters and a little girl’s dreams as part of Israel’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay.
“This was what every little girl who swims dreams about including myself,” Spitz said. “When I was 7 years old my grandma took me to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha and to have made it all this way, I’m so proud and I know she’s watching me on TV and is proud of me and it’s just very cool and full circle moment.”
As she stood next to her Israeli teammates in the Paris La Defense Arena mix zone, Spitz also knew Kasner wasn’t the only one intently watching the relay team.
“This has been a tough year for all Israelis and it just means a lot to be competing here and to be representing Israel during these times. And I couldn’t be prouder to be doing that.”
Israel, sixth in its heat Thursday, 11th overall with a time of 7 minutes, 55.99 seconds, did not advance to the final.
Only a day earlier it was uncertain whether Spitz would even be able to swim after she suffered through four days of high temperatures, severe headaches and body aches.
“It wasn’t where I wanted to be timewise or kind of how I wanted to feel,” Spitz said of her 2:01.02 split. “But I’m grateful that I was honestly able to have the opportunity to swim because a few days ago I was questioning whether I would be able to swim.
“Yesterday I was given the green light, so to speak. And so every day I was just hoping I would get better and doing everything in my power to recover, to you know, take care of myself get good rest so that I would be able to compete for this team.”
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Israel arrived in Paris with hopes of making the 4×200 final after winning the event at the European Championships in Belgrade in June with a 7:51.83 that at the time was the third third fastest mark in the world in 2024 and more than seven seconds under the national record.
As she with her relay teammates stood atop the medal podium, the Israeli national anthem playing, Spitz noticed her other Israeli team members in the stands singing along.
“It was a very emotional experience,” said Spitz, who became an Israel citizen last summer. She is the daughter of former Orange County Register publisher Eric Spitz. “Just an immense sense of pride was going through my head.
“That was such an incredible experience. We had a really great performance there. We all just really put that relay together how we wanted to and just to stand up on top of the podium and to hear the Israeli national anthem was a surreal experience. And I’ll forget it.”
