On Thursday, Pezaro took home Israel's first medal at the London Paralympic Games in the 50-meter freestyle heat, timing 37:89 seconds.
Pezaro is ranked first in the world in the 200-meter freestyle heat, and was hoping to win her first Olympic gold medal after taking home four silver medals and one bronze medal in the Athens and Beijing games. However, she was preceded by Norway's Sarah Louise Rung (2:49.74 minutes) and Spain's Teresa Perales (2:51.79 minutes).
Pezaro (R) with Norwegian and Spanish swimmers (Photo: Getty Images)
Pezaro's coach, Yaakov Benenson, sounded disappointed: "Inbal is fit and was expecting to improve the record in her strongest heat. She started too strong, and that may have affected the end of the heat."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Pezaro on his Facebook page. "A good start for the Israeli delegation, and good luck to the rest of the athletes later on," he wrote.
In another achievement for the Israeli delegation, swimmer Izhak Mamistvalov claimed his own bronze medal in the 200-meter freestyle heat, in a time of 4:58.53 minutes.