Israel's Naomi Wiegenfeld is currently ranked no.1 in Europe at under-15. But as she builds towards a professional squash career, she "has two battles to fight" every time she steps on court.
Naomi has won U17 gold at the Czech Junior Open and U17 bronze at the Swiss Junior Open this season, despite only turning 14 in January. She was a bronze medallist at July's prestigious Dutch Junior Open and part of Israel's historic performance at April's European U19 Team Championships in Poland.
These early signs of promise, by a young player from outside of squash's traditional superpower nations, are even more eye-catching because Naomi has type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Because the body cannot produce insulin, glucose cannot enter the cells for energy and builds up in the bloodstream.
The disease is managed by daily injections of insulin, close monitoring of blood sugar levels several times a day and carefully balancing food intake with physical activity. Naomi wears an insulin pump and continuous blood glucose monitor at all times as part of her diabetes management.
Symptoms of high blood sugar levels include overwhelming fatigue, extreme thirst and hunger, frequent urination and blurred vision. However, the biggest danger for athletes lies in low blood sugars, as intense physical activity often causes a quick drop in glucose levels. Those lows can cause passing out and seizures.
Clearly, these conditions are far from optimal as a basis for top-level squash, and certainly put Naomi's achievements so far into perspective.
"She is not only a champion in terms of winning tournaments, she is also a role model," says Israel’s Head National Coach, Avihai Bar-Moha, who coincidentally also has type 1 diabetes.
"As a person who has also played professional squash with diabetes, I know it is certainly not easy mentally or physically. This is something that should be embraced and talked about. She is amazing for dealing with it."
Naomi takes great inspiration from German tennis player Alexander Zverev, who won this year's French Open and was Olympic gold medallist in Tokyo in 2021. Like Naomi, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was four years old and often injects himself with insulin mid-match on court.
Naomi's mum, Natalie De Munnynck, said: "I think it's great that someone like Zverev is creating awareness around the issue and showing the world you can achieve anything you want with type 1 diabetes.
"I tell Naomi she can achieve anything she wants, it's just that little bit harder for her. She has often two battles to fight, but I think it's important that she doesn't hide this."
Indeed, Naomi is happy to speak about her condition and is sanguine about the dual challenges of competing on the international junior circuit and dealing with the constant monitoring, injections and symptoms.
"It's just another level of extra work that needs to go into everything I do," she says. "I always have to think about what activities I'm going to do each day; whether I'll be active or sitting in a classroom, and that forms the basis for how much insulin I will need.
"With low blood sugars especially, your reaction time becomes a whole lot slower and you feel really weak. Suddenly all the energy drains out of you, so that really affects performance. With extremely high blood sugars, it can also make you slower and less active. It's something I always have to take into account and deal with."
Naomi has three elder brothers, one of whom, Tamir, is also on the Israeli national junior team. He will join Cornell University a year early (aged 17) in September where he will be coached by the great David Palmer.
Naomi also hopes to play college squash and eventually turn pro — and she currently has the perfect platform for high educational and athletic achievement.
She and two of her brothers attend the prestigious Millfield School in Somerset, England, working under the school's long-time Director of Squash, Ian Thomas. Millfield's alumni include Mohamed and Marwan ElShorbagy and former British no.1 Peter Marshall.
"I always knew Naomi would be good," says Nadav Tannen, Israel's National Junior Coach, who has previously worked in the USA, Poland and Germany.
"I saw the potential there from a very young age. She has always been very talented and keen."
Israeli junior squash is experiencing its finest ever period. In addition to the Wiegenfeld siblings, Elad Robenshtok is already playing for the senior national team. He helped them earn promotion to Division 1 in May's European Team Championships in Amsterdam. At the time of writing, he is the no.4 junior in Europe, but will soon turn 19 and start playing in PSA Tour events.
Ofri Maliach (GU17) and Ori Yahud (BU19) were also part of Israel's squad at this year's European Team U19 Championships in Krakow, where they finished a best-ever fourth place, narrowly losing to the Netherlands in the bronze medal play-off. Younger players Noam Dror (BU15) and Rani Bejerano (BU17) also competed in the recent Dutch Junior Open in Amsterdam.
“Everything has changed in the last three or four years since we got this group together,” says National Junior Coach Tannen.
"They're all big-hearted kids who love to hang out together and put their heart and soul into squash. We’ve created a group of people who all help each other and are totally unselfish. We can see the apples growing on the tree, and these are great apples!
"What pleases me most is that after the sessions we have the U19s and U11s all going together to play bowling. We are not pushing that. Everybody takes care of each other. Their age doesn't make any difference. That makes my heart warm. I can call them and their parents my family."
Naomi and Tamir's mother Natalie says: "I'm extremely proud. They're great kids and work really hard.
"I'm most proud of their willingness to take risks. As parents, it's important to create opportunities and then it's up to them to be up for the challenge or not.
"Because of the social support and great atmosphere in the team, squash became a large part of their life and they get a lot back from it. I hope that they continue and go on to more great things."
