Barnabas Szollos, 23, finished in sixth place overall today in men’s alpine skiing at the Beijing Games, setting a new Israeli record for skiers in the Winter Olympics.

Szollos came in 11th in downhill skiing and then took second place in speed slalom. He was just 1.07 seconds away from winning a medal in his first Olympics. He has two more events scheduled – giant slalom on Sunday and slalom on Wednesday.

Barnabas’ sister, Noa, 19, also is skiing for Israel in her first Olympic bid. On February 7, she finished in 42nd place out of 60 in the giant slalom qualifiers and took a spill in her second event. On February 9 she finished in 41st place out of 86 in the slalom competition.

The Israeli delegation was the 18th country to enter the stadium for the opening ceremony on February 4, led by flagbearers Evgeni Krasnopolski and Noa Szollos.

Other results thus far: On February 8, Alexei Bychenko finished 26th in the men’s single skating short program, not high enough to progress to the next level.

Vladislav Bykanov qualified for the semifinals in the 1,500-meter short-track speed skating race, with a personal record of 2:09.95 minutes. His overall ranking now stands at 17.

Israeli figure skating pair Evgeni Krasnopolski and Hailey Kops are scheduled to have their first appearance on the rink on February 18.

Abigail Klein Leichman is a writer and associate editor at ISRAEL21c. Prior to moving to Israel in 2007, she was a specialty writer and copy editor at a major daily newspaper in New Jersey and has freelanced for a variety of newspapers and periodicals since 1984.