Barnea attended
UC Berkeley, where he studied Business Administration and was an All-American for the Golden Bears. He was named First-Team
Pac-10 All-Academic in both 2009 and 2010. Barnea competed on behalf of
Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, China. He came in 15th in the
Men's 100m backstroke with a time of 54.50. He won a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke at the
2009 World University Games with a time of 25.09. At the
2009 Maccabiah Games, he won a gold medal in the
Men's 100m backstroke with a time of 54.22, setting a new
Maccabiah Games record and Israeli record. In 2010, Barnea won the long course
European Aquatics Championships bronze medal in the 50m backstroke. In August 2014 at the Israeli national swimming championships Barnea won a gold medal in the 50m backstroke with a time of 25.12. At the 2015 European Short Course Swimming Championships in December, he set a new national record of 51.36 in the 100m butterfly. As of March 2016, he held the Israeli records in the long course 50 backstroke (24.64), the short course 50 backstroke (23.27), and the long course 100 fly (51.36). At the 2017 Scottish National Championships, Barnea won the men’s 100m backstroke in a time of 54.49, close to his lifetime personal best of 54.29. At the
2017 Maccabiah Games, in the special 4x50m relay race between Israeli and American all-star teams, American Olympic champions
Lenny Krayzelburg (four Olympic golds),
Jason Lezak (four Olympic golds), and
Anthony Ervin (three Olympic golds), with masters swimmer Alex Blavatnik, swam a time of 1:48.23 and defeated Israeli Olympians Barnea,
Yoav Bruck,
Eran Groumi, and
Tal Stricker, who had a time of 1:51.25. ==See also==