The 21st Maccabiah Games, the third-largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, brought in over 10,000 athletes from 65 countries to compete in 3,000 events in 42 sports.
The games have been held every four years in Israel since 1932, with the participation of many Jewish athletes from all over the world. This year’s games were originally planned for 2021 but were pushed off due to the pandemic. One of the most special aspects of the Maccabiah games is its inclusivity, featuring juniors’ adults, masters and people with disabilities all in one event.
30,000 individual competitions took place in just three weeks. This year, the games were held in over 18 different venues across the country.
Team Maccabi GB, from Great Britain, made waves as the British athletes won 57 medals, the most in the delegation’s history. Another first, women’s ice hockey was included on the sports docket alongside swimming, golf, rugby, basketball and much more.
Israel came in 11th place overall with seven gold medals just ahead of Spain and Great Britain, and just behind China and Colombia.
That’s not the only big sporting event to come to Israel this summer.
Soccer players Lionel Messi and Neymar arrived in Israel this past weekend with their team Paris Saint-Germain for their upcoming match against fellow French team FC Nantes for a tournament known as the “French Super Cup” which was held in Tel Aviv.
The game took place as part of an initiative by Israeli-Canadian businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams as part of an effort to bring major sporting events to Israel. Paris Saint-Germain beat Nantes 4-0.
