Seemed like a good occasion for a terrorist attack...

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/204/world/Maccabiah_Games_end_with_celeb:.shtml

Maccabiah Games end with celebration of Jewish defiance

By Jason Keyser, Associated Press, 7/23/2001 22:31

JERUSALEM (AP) With fireworks exploding and thousands of athletes cheering, Israel Monday closed its 16th Maccabiah games, known as the Jewish Olympics.

The closing ceremony that included music and dancing was also a celebration of Jewish defiance of 10 months of Palestinian-Israeli violence, which caused thousands of athletes to stay away from the games.

''You have shown courage, you have shown great solidarity in the hard days for Israel,'' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the crowd. ''They are hard days, but no doubt we will win. ... We need you here.''

Security for the closing ceremony was tight, with thousands of police and soldiers, some with bomb sniffing dogs, on patrol. The flashing stage lights blinked along with the blue lights of nearby police cars.

Ukrainian-born American swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg, who won three gold medals in the Sydney Olympics, decided months ago to compete here instead of the world swimming championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Perhaps the best known athlete at the games, Krayzelburg won the 100-meter backstroke in record Maccabiah time.

Krayzelburg was among a U.S. delegation of about 350 athletes, scaled back after about 300 athletes canceled their trips over concerns for their safety.

In all, 3,200 competitors came from 43 countries, but that was about half the number originally expected.

Todd Schayes, a basketball coach from Colorado, turned the Maccabiah into a personal quest and was overwhelmed by the results.

During the opening ceremony a week ago, he marched into the stadium carrying a sign scrawled in Hebrew, ''Young single bachelor from America looking for a single Israeli girl.''

The television cameras caught sight of the coach's stunt. A week later, 6,000 Israeli women had left messages, wanting to meet the sturdy, 6-foot-3-inch coach.

''I'm overwhelmed. It's hard to put it to words how amazing it is,'' he said.'' I'm just a low key, quiet sixth grade teacher and basketball coach from Denver.''

The basketball court offered no escape. Referees kept asking him to meet their sisters.

Also, despite the Palestinian-Israeli tensions, a group of Arabs played in the Jewish games for the first time.

An Arab-Israeli high school girls soccer team from the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin came to fill in for another Israeli team.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001