Or Sasson

Sasson was born in Jerusalem, to a family of Kurdish Jewish descent.^{[16][1][7][17][18]} His parents are Varda and Haim Sasson. He is the younger brother of former judoka and Israel national judo team captain Alon Sasson,^[19] who, when they were children, would hit him to show him who was boss.^[17]

He resides in Netanya, Israel, and studies business administration at Ruppin Academic Center College in Hefer Valley, Israel.^[1][17] Sasson is a fan of basketball and basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem B.C.^[20]

In 2020, Sasson competed in the Israeli version of The Masked Singer reality singing show, hiding in full-body falafel sandwich costume, and finished third.^[21]

In 2024, Sasson competed in the 10th season of Israel's Rokdim Im Kokhavim ('Dancing with the Stars'), where he was eliminated as the 5th couple out of 21, before reaching the live show stage.^[22]

Sasson started training in judo when he was eight years old.^[17] His coaches were Gil Ofer and Oren Smadja, his club was Meitav Jerusalem, and he started competing in 2005.^[1][17] He has worked with Noam Eyal, a sports psychologist who works for the Olympic Committee of Israel.^[17] Sasson won the Israeli judo championship at ‍–‍100 kg in 2007–09 and 2011, and at +100 kg in 2011 and 2012.^[7]

In July 2009 Sasson won the gold medal at the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, in judo at ‍–‍100 kg.^[23] In September 2011 he competed in the Judo World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where Iranian Javad Mahjoub was slated to face him, but refused.^[24]

In February 2012, he won a gold medal in the World Cup Prague in judo at +100 kg.^[25][26] In February 2013 and the following month, Sasson won gold medals in the European Open Tbilisi, Georgia^[27][28] and the European Open Warsaw at ‍–‍100 kg.^[29][30][31] In September 2014, he won a gold medal at the European Open Tallinn in Estonia at +100 kg, as he weighed approximately 115 kg and returned from surgery on an injured thumb.^[32][33][34]

On 26 June, representing Israel at the 2015 European Games in judo in the +100 kg category (while weighing 120 kg) in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sasson won a silver medal for Israel in the inaugural European Games, and in doing so won the silver medal in the 2015 European Championships.^{[1][35][13][14][15]} He lost to 159 kg Adam Okruashvili of Georgia in the final.^[36]

Sasson won the silver medal at the 2016 European Championships.^[37][38]

Source:^[65]

• List of select Jewish judokas
• List of Jewish Olympic medalists
• List of Israelis