21st Maccabiah postponed a year for Olympics to 2022
Hoping to attract record number of competitors to Israel, Maccabi World Union doesn't want to conflict with delayed Tokyo Games
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFDELEGATIONS FROM 85 countries gather at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem for the opening ceremony of the 2017 Maccabiah Games(photo credit: REUTERS)
Maccabi World Union’s leadership, together with the Maccabiah’s Organizing Committee, held a wide-ranging discussion on Thursday with the participation of Maccabi leaders and heads of delegations.The resulting decision was to postpone the 21st Maccabiah a year, from summer 2021 until 2022. The dates for the 21st Maccabiah will now be July 12 -26, 2022. The opening ceremony will take place on July 14 and the closing ceremony on July 25.“The main reason for the decision to postpone the Maccabiah by one year is the postponement of the Summer Olympics to 2021 in parallel with the Maccabiah’s original dates,” read Maccabi World Union’s statement.“Our main goal is to bring the top Jewish athletes to Israel, as was done in the recent Maccabiot, and that will compete alongside with the Israeli Olympic athletes; this would have been avoided if the Maccabiah was to be held in summer 2021.”The first Maccabiah took place in 1932 at the Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv and, with the exception of World War II, has never been canceled and always took place a year after the Olympics.The delay of the Maccabiah by one year will help the Maccabi leaders and heads of delegations, as well as the organizing committee in Israel, to recover from the coronavirus crisis and continue to recruit a record number of athletes to the “Jewish Olympics.”A total of 10,000 athletes from 85 countries – both records – competed in the 2017 Maccabiah, making the Games the third-largest sporting competition in the world after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.“We will continue with the preparations together with our partners in Israel and around the world, and look forward to welcoming you at the 21st Maccabiah in summer 2022,” concluded the statement.
