"You know Ilana, Dan Dan came home the day he was informed that he would play with you at Maccabiah, all the couples involved were all excited." This is the sentence Ronit, Dan's mother, told me when I visited her and her family during the Shiva days.

I'm willing to swear Dan was not excited to share the same tennis court with me. If he got excited, then he missed his true destiny - to be a theater actor and not a tennis player.
I did not feel or see in Dan a trace of excitement. I saw in him only what is seen in true champions: determination, motivation, enthusiasm and a smile. Ah, what a smile!

Dan Dan was a wonderful tennis player and he certainly had the most important thing in tennis -  What is between the ears. Fate wanted and Dan Dan grew up to be a relatively short boy, but even that did not stop Dan from realizing the huge potential that was inherent in him. Dan Dan was a champion by any standard  - Literally.
He was really unstoppable.

Dan was born in December so in his teens he wandered alternately between first and third place in the rankings, and places 4-8 when it was time a year to deal with children older than him.
But Dan did not flinch. Dan saw no difficulty. He saw only a challenge. From his youth until his college days, Dan's name has come a long way as a dangerous opponent, a huge fighter and a leader by birth. Dan did not let talk stop him as soon as he set himself a goal.

I do not remember how it happened that we were ordered to play together in the doubles matches at Maccabiah 15. But whoever it was that came up with this ingenious idea, I will be grateful to him forever.
During that dream week I met one of the most interesting and charismatic people I have ever met.
On the field Dan Dan and I complemented each other. If Beckhand had a "problematic" (as Gilad Blum was quoted as saying about him) and me forhand to say about him is problematic, it would be a compliment ...
I was a restrained, calculated tennis player and then for a good few years now after officially retiring from professional tennis. Dan Dan on the other hand was all fire and brimstone. Enthusiastic, nimble as a demon, talented and smiling forever.
The two of us together, two December natives who have been fighting children older than them all these years, talked to the racket using a very similar tennis style of play - effective and very aggressive.
To win the silver medal we won in the 15th Maccabiah somewhere in 1997 without training even one day before that was enough.

But what marked Dan as a champion by grace was his athletic spirit. This spirit has not harmed this darkness in his determination to win and excel and so it is he who turns Dan's story into the story of a true champion.
Dan was willing to do anything to win except for what was forbidden. And what was forbidden was clear: to lie or not to totally respect the opponent - any opponent.
The sportiness and fair play were a candle to Dan's feet and his motto was -  "Not at any cost."

It's not just the day that Dan revealed that Alilo, cyclist Lance Armstrong was caught for many years using illicit drugs, was for Dan a real day of mourning.
Dan is very angry. He was disappointed and took very personally the fact that Alilo was revealed as a liar and as one who achieved his sporting achievements, his great publicity and also quite a bit of money in dishonesty. The book about Armstrong's life, the yellow bracelets of the association he set up for cancer patients, everything that Dan has collected over the years in blind admiration for anyone, lost in his eyes at once momentary value.  

Dan Dan's story as a champion crosses far beyond the lines of the tennis court. It is said that a true champion knows when to retire and Dan Dan did just that. He put tennis aside for a higher purpose - combat military service. For Dan, he retired at the peak. He retired at one record, only to set himself the following records, and he had quite a few records off the field as well.

Dan Dan turned to gold everything he touched. People adored him. I admired him.

From the height of the age differences between us I learned a lot from Dan and now that I have been given the right to go deep into his life story in conversations with so many people he has touched, and given the right to discover the values that guided him in his life, I continue to learn about him and especially from him. 

I learned to recognize and feel how significant Dan was in my life like many others, only in retrospect. I was only close to Dan for a week and so even more amazing is the impact and impression he was able to leave on me. Without noticing, Dan snuck into my heart, and my heart skipped a beat when I heard he was gone.

Ilana Berger Harpaz

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