The 19th Maccabiah Games opened at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium on Thursday evening in the presence of 30,000 viewers, including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This year’s “Jewish Olympics” is the biggest ever with a record number of participating countries (78), athletes (8,919) and sports (42).
The festive day began at 11 am with the torch relay which left from Kfar Maccabiah in Ramat Gan, as well as a convoy of Harley Davidson riders carrying the flags of the participating countries. The riders reenacted the historic journey from 80 years ago, when riders passed through Europe’s Jewish communities and spread the news about the first Maccabiah.
This year’s Maccabiah will host representatives from 20 countries which have never participated in the games before, like Armenia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and one tennis player representing Mongolia.
Athletes will compete in 42 different sports, including seven new ones added to the 19th Maccabiah: Archery, ice hockey, handball, shooting, open water swimming, bridge and badminton. The Paralympic events will include tennis, table tennis, cycling, swimming and wheelchair basketball.
The 19th Maccabiah will also be the most expensive in history, with a budget totaling some NIS 200 million (about $55 million) – NIS 120 million ($33 million) from the state budget and Maccabi management and NIS 80 million ($22 million) from the different countries participating in the competitions.
Viewers will get to see as many as 150 athletes who participated in the recent Olympic Games, including American artistic gymnast Aly Raisman who performed her performed her floor exercise at the London Games to the tune of “Hava Nagila” and won two gold medals in the team and individual competitions.
Raisman will be joined by American Olympic swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale, who two gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as Ukrainian breaststroke swimmer Maxim Podoprigora, who represented Austria in three Olympic Games and won a silver medal at the 2001 World Championships.
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