CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois men’s gymnastics interim head coach Daniel Ribeiro will serve as Team USA’s director of gymnastics for the Maccabiah Games, July 5-26 in Israel.
“I am very excited to be representing Team USA as the gymnastics director ” Ribeiro said. “I will be overseeing the senior and junior men’s and women’s teams at this year’s Maccabiah Games. We have an incredibly talented group of athletes this year that will be fighting for medal opportunities on the world stage.”
Roughly 10,000 athletes participate in the three week competition in three tours – the junior tour (athletes 18 years old and younger), the open and para tour, and the master tour.
About the Maccabiah
The first Maccabiah was held in Ramat Gan in 1932 with 390 athletes from 18 countries taking part. Traditionally held every four years, interrupted only by World War II, by 2017 the Games had grown to include nearly 10,000 Jewish athletes from more than 75 countries competing in 40 sports, making it the third largest international multi-sport event in the world following only the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. The Maccabi USA delegation to the 20th Maccabiah in the summer of 2017 numbered 1,131 members, the largest traveling delegation in the history of not just Jewish sporting events but all international multi-sport competitions.
