Maria E., a swimmer with Team Ukraine at the Tucson JCC Maccabi Games, cruised into first place in the girls 16-18 200-meter freestyle heat on Tuesday.
Maria, 16, is competing in her third Maccabi Games and was unfazed by Tucson’s desert heat, having participated in Houston in 2024 and Fort Lauderdale in 2023.
After her swim, Maria spoke to the AJP about the war in Ukraine. Her father had to leave the country to find work to support the family. Russian air raids have interrupted school and swim practices. And children and adults have experienced mental health issues, she said.
“Most people, like, changed. They are not as happy as we was before the war. It’s true for me, too, because at the start, I was shocked. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep well because I was scared,” she said.
She noted that another girl in the Ukrainian delegation, a volleyball player, is from Kherson and lived under the Russian occupation. “That was so scary,” Maria said. Only then did she add that many of her friends and family have been killed.
“It’s all difficult,” she said matter-of-factly before going off to join her friends.
A Display of Sportsmanship
Ofir Shalom, a swimmer from Israel, also made his mark on the games. Ofir could have claimed a first-place medal in one of his heats on Monday. Instead, he told officials that the computer clock had gotten it wrong and Aiden Hale of Phoenix had beaten him to the finish.
On Tuesday, Shalom and Hale were honored with Midot Awards for displaying the value of Kavod (respect), one of the six Midot (values) central to the Maccabi Games. The other Midot are Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), Rina (joy), Ga’ava (pride), Lev Tov (big-heartedness), and Amit Yehudit (Jewish peoplehood).
A Walking Billboard for Maccabi
Davis Hubbell, director of teen engagement for the Tucson Jewish Community Center and delegation head for Team Tucson, caught the action at the pool on Tuesday. He enjoys seeing the fellowship among the athletes from various cities and nations – in addition to Israel and Ukraine, the Tucson games include teams from Canada and several athletes from Moldova.
“They’re having a blast, meeting people from all over, pin-trading, trading merch. Many of our teens are part of mixed teams, so finding that camaraderie with people they just met this week. Multiple of our mixed teams have gotten wins so far, so that camaraderie is coming through,” he said.
For Hubbell, it’s been fun to have a full delegation of 73 athletes.
Two years ago, his first time as delegation head, he brought just two athletes to the Fort Lauderdale games. Last year, he took 10 teen athletes to Detroit.
Even with the smaller delegations, the Maccabi Games were an awesome experience for Hubbell. As a native Tucsonan, he said, he’s familiar with being the only Jewish person in a room, so to be surrounded by hundreds of Jewish teens was “so cool.”
He loves the Games so much, he added, that kids at the J call him “a walking billboard for Maccabi.”
