Fridman was born in Karkur, Israel, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. The second out of three children, Fridman was born to Dganit and Uri Fridman, and has an older sister named Maayan and a younger brother named Yuval. Growing up close to the Mediterranean Sea, Gal was Introduced by his father to Windsurfing, Fridman started sailing at age 7, and began racing when he was 11. He began competing internationally in youth categories while still at school. After his service in the Israel Defense Forces he began competing as an adult. In 1995, he won the ASA Boardsailing Championship in Eilat, Israel. In 1999, he won the International ASA Windsurfing Championship in Eilat. In 2002, he won the Mistral World Championship held in Pattaya, Thailand, and was ranked #1 on the International Sailing Federation rankings in February 2003.
Despite his form in the previous years, he failed to win the Israeli Olympic Trials and did not represent Israel in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Amit Inbar represented Israel in the 2000 Olympics and finished 7th overall.
Back on form leading up to the 2004 Olympics, Fridman was one of Israel's Olympic Team favorites to a win a Medal, and prepared intensively for the Olympic Games two years prior to the event. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Fridman again competed in the Olympic Windsurfing Discipline of Sailing, a discipline that included 11 races. Fridman was coached by retired Olympic Windsurfing Silver and Bronze Medalist Michael Gebhardt from the US. In the last race on August 25, 2004, Fridman finished a hard fought 2nd, exploiting a tactical mistake made by Brazilian leader Ricardo Santos and beat Greek windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis in order to end the Olympic Regatta with the lowest score, thus earning the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal in Windsurfing. Olympic Sailing events scores are tabulated with the lowest score winning. Fridman won Israel's one and only Olympic Gold Medal. Final Results 1st- Gal Fridman – Israel 2nd- Nikolaos Kaklamanakis – Greece 3rd- Nick Dempsey – Great Britain 4th- Ricardo Santos – Brazil 5th- Przemysław Miarczyński – Poland
Approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Fridman found it hard to adjust to the new Olympic Windsurf board model, the RS:X Neil Pryde windsurfer. Also he had some crucial equipment failures at key Olympic trail regattas and failed to qualify for the 2008 Israeli Olympic Sailing Team. Shahar Tzuberi took his place and went on to win the 2008 Olympic Bronze Medal for Israel.
Later years
Fridman, an avid cyclist, won a Gold Medal in the Israeli cycling championship in 2005. In 2007, he won the Men's Windsurfer New Year International Regatta in Limassol, Cyprus. After 2008, Fridman retired from competition in windsurfing and focused on coaching up and coming Israeli Windsurfers. He guided Nimrod Mashiah to the Silver Medal in the 2009 World Championship. In June 2005, his Bronze and Gold Olympic Medals were stolen, with only the Gold Medal recovered from the robbery. Fridman currently coaches Israel's top windsurfers preparing for the 2016 RIO Summer Olympics and currently owns a SUP Company. and is involved with helping the SUP Company "Starboard" with SUP R&D and can be found giving motivational speeches worldwide.
