US President Joe Biden has left Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium after welcoming the American delegation to the Maccabiah.
Shane Carr, one of the heads of the American delegation, says Biden spoke to about 200 members of the American team for around 10 minutes and even sang happy birthday to one of the delegates.
“He said, ‘I’m so damn proud of you,’ and he talked about trying to be a walk-on football player at Syracuse University, but he failed,” Carr says. “He also talked about how much he loves Israel and told us ‘what you do matters.’”
“It’s amazing because now we’ve been recognized as what we always knew this was, which is a great international sporting competition,” says Wasley Kaling, a 37-year-old water polo player on the American team.
“I get goosebumps just thinking about it, him being here is a validation of ‘this is a really big deal.’ Having foreign leaders come here for this is unbelievable.”
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 14, 2022
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