Multi-sport Paralympics champion Baruch Hagai is known as "Mr. Basketball" of wheelchair sports.

His extraordinary record includes 10 basketball gold medals: Paralympic Games––1968, 1980: Stoke-Mandeville Games––1967, 1969, 1981; World Champion-ships­­––1971, 1975; and European Championships––1971, 1978, 1981.

Hagai also captured five Paralympics table tennis gold medals: singles–1964, 1968, 1972, 1976; doubles–1968 (bronze 1964).  Also in '64, his Paralympics medals included a pair of swimming honors––gold in the 50m breaststroke and bronze in medley.

Baruch Hagai was honored as a "Man of Peace" by the International Olympic Committee in 1986 and, in 2001, was recipient of the Israel Prize.

Hagai was born in Libya where he contracted polio at age two, but did not receive treatment for the illness until he was 7, when his family of 13 immigrated to Israel.