US President Biden attends 2022 Maccabiah Games opening ceremony
'You demonstrate to the world that we can do anything'
US President Joe Biden on Thursday attended the opening ceremony of the 21st Maccabiah Games at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.
Biden, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday as part of his first trip to the Middle East after taking office, met with the American delegation of nearly 250 athletes. The president spoke to the team for several minutes and shook hands with athletes and supporters.
“You demonstrate to the world that we can do anything,” Biden said, adding that he was proud of the athletes.
American leader then shared a story of his own experience playing football in college and asking a friend to convince his agent to help him get a walk on NFL tryout.
"He came back to me and said, 'Joe, he might be able to get you a chance to walk on, but he’s afraid you might have to be carried off,'" Biden said, as quoted by The Times of Israel.
The president then wore a USA hat and posed for photos with athletes while taking a knee.
“Go get them, folks,” he told the athletes, and joined them in singing a birthday song to one of the sportsmen.
The Maccabiah Games are often referred to as “the Jewish Olympics” with international athletes competing in 42 sports, including chess and cricket. The games were first held in Israel in 1932. They take place every four years but were previously postponed due to the pandemic.
The Teddy stadium experienced a power outage minutes before the ceremony started but it still went ahead as planned, The Jerusalem Post reported. This year’s Maccabiah games are expected to become the world’s largest sporting event with 30,000 individual competitions to be held in two weeks.