Shoshana Ribner (also "Rivner", ; February 20, 1938 â 29 June 2007) was an Israeli Olympic swimmer.
Shoshana Ribner was born in Vienna, Austria. Her family immigrated to Israel when she was an infant. Ribner began competing as a swimmer at the age of 13. Her trainer, 24-year-old Nachum Buch, swam for Israel at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Ribner's son, Damon Fialkov, was Israel's 200-meter backstroke champion in 1981.
Ribner joined the Brit Maccabi Atid swimming club of Tel Aviv at the age of 13. She won gold medals in the 100-meter and 400-meter crawls at the 1953 Maccabiah Games.
She competed for Israel at the 1956 Summer Olympics, when she was 18 years old, in Melbourne, Australia, in Swimming--Women's 100 metre freestyle. She finished 7th in her heat, with a time of 1:10.3, and did not advance to the finals. She was the only female on Israel's 15-person Olympic team. Her best time in the 100 meter freestyle was 1:09.3, and her fastest time for the 400 meter freestyle was 5:42.59, as of 1956. That year she was named Israel's Athlete of the Year.
Ribner won two gold medals and two silver medals (including a silver medal in the 400 m) at the 1957 Maccabiah Games.
In 1998, she was named one of Israel's top 50 athletes in its history.