Gal Fridman may be dreaming of a white (and foamy) Christmas, but a January of gold, silver or bronze would be even better.
The veteran windsurfer won Israel's first-ever Olympic gold medal at Athens 2004 and is now training in New Zealand for his final shot at earning a berth at Beijing 2008 - by placing highly at next month's RS:X World Championships in North Shore City, Auckland.
A medal will see him through; a top-ten finish will turn it into more of a points race hinging on his world ranking next year.
As perhaps Israel's best shot at medaling next August in Olympic co-host city Qingdao, however, the pressure is on to make sure he at least shows up for the party by qualifying.
The question is: can the 2002 mistral world champion do it again six years later on the trickier RS:X board, months before it makes its Olympic debut?
"This will be the real test," Michal Shahaf, spokeswoman for the Olympic Committee of Israel, told China Daily. "In the last few months he has dedicated so much. He is concentrating only on achieving his goals. He's very serious."
The 32-year-old has left his wife and home behind to focus on training, as well as memories of his mini breakdown after Athens.
Then again, he is used to bouncing back from adversity.
After capturing a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, when he was named Israel's sportsman of the year, Fridman was not selected for Sydney 2000 yet managed to make history four years later in Athens.
Now he is pulling out all the stops, first decamping to the United States to train with two-time Olympic medalist Mike Gebhardt in the summer, then shifting halfway around the world a few months ago to give himself something of a home advantage for the upcoming championships.
This newfound sense of comfort would give him a leg up from Athens, where he was hardly a crowd favorite. In the 11th and final race of the Olympic mistral competition, Fridman took tactical advantage of his Greek rival's mistakes to finish second and claim the ultimate prize.
"It was like I was in a dream, completely cut off from everything else and totally focused," he said afterwards.
At least he will not be so troubled by host China next time round - its top windsurfer is a woman.
The Israeli struggled after the 2004 Games and considered retiring from the sport. When the International Olympic Committee switched boards to the more democratic RS:X, it only made things tougher.
Fortunately, hardships are what professional athletes eat for breakfast.
In 2005 Fridman won Israel's national mountain biking competition, and he got 2007 off to a rollicking start by winning a New Year's sailboarding regatta in Cyprus.
Windsurfing was first introduced at the 1984 Los Angeles Games in the guise of the Lechner sailboard event.
Each NOC can field one athlete of each sex but they need to be up for the challenge -- it is more punishing than regular sailing or windsurfing as challengers are allowed to pump the sails with air.
"Its very physical, especially in the Olympic class," said US sailor Peter Wells prior to Athens. "Everything seems amplified by 10."
Athens revisited
Israel picked up two medals in Athens, including a bronze from heavyweight judoka Ariel Zeeva. Beijing will be another leaf from the same book.
"Our expectations are one or two medals, and we predict it will be in sailing or judo," said Shahaf.
The country has a total of six Olympic medals from three sports including one in canoeing. It first medaled at the 1992 Barcelona Games courtesy of judokas Yael Arad and Shay Oren Smadga, who took silver in the women's 61kg class and bronze in the men's 71kg, respectively.
Athens was more of a one-man show, with Gal, whose name means "wave" in Hebrew, hopefully starting a new trend of success for Israel's sailors.
