Nations participating 20 Athletes participating 980 Officially opened by Yitzhak Ben Zvi | Debuting countries Mexico Opening city Ramat Gan, Israel Main venue Ramat Gan Stadium | |
Twenty countries sent 980 athletes to compete in the 1957 5th Maccabiah, an international Jewish athletics competition similar to the Olympics.
Contents
The presence of a large number of world-class Jewish athletes elevated the quality of competition. The athletes had been housed in the newly built Maccabiah Village.
Mexico sent its first contingent of athletes.
Rosenberg fighting for France lived to that time in Germany, but Germany didn't have a team in that maccabiah, so Rosenberg fought for France.
Abie Grossfeld of the United States dominated the Games, winning 7 golds in 7 gymnastics events: AA, R, PH, FX, HB, PB, & V.
Angela Buxton of Great Britain, who the year prior had won the doubles title at Wimbledon, won the gold medal in women's singles.
In fencing, Byron Krieger, 2-time Pan American Games gold medal winner, won individual Gold in SABRE and individual Bronze in FOIL.
In weightlifting, Isaac Berger became the first athlete to establish a world record in the State of Israel, pressing 258 pounds (117 kg) in Featherweight competition for the US, a year after winning an Olympic gold medal.
Ben Helfgott, a concentration camp survivor, won the weightlifting gold medal in the lightweight class for Great Britain for the third Games in a row.
Reuven Helman competed in shot-put, javelin, the decathlon and weightlifting. Helman came in second in 1957 in the International Maccabiah Games.
In fencing, British Olympian and world champion Allan Jay won three gold medals.
In track, Harry Kane of Britain won the 400 meter hurdles and took a silver medal in the 200 meter hurdles, with a time of 25.3 seconds.
Participating communities
The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that community contributed.