Sports & Competitions

Celebrities gift an ambucycle to United Hatzalah

JERUSALEM (Press Release) — Recently retired NBA all-star Amare Stoudemire and current NBA star Omri Casspi on Friday afternoon, Aug. 5, gifted their friend, Entourage TV actor Jeremy Piven, with a life-saving ambucycle. The ambucycle immediately became part of Israel’s national emergency medical services (EMS) organization, United Hatzalah’s, response team. “Just the idea that we can use […]

Celebrities gift an ambucycle to United Hatzalah Read More »

Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

The Olympic Museum: A Gold Medal experience in Lausanne, Switzerland

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Aug. 6, 2016 – Pierre de Fredy, Baron de Coubertin, was a dreamer who revived the Olympic Games in 1896. Though it was an idealistic concept to unite the countries of the world through athletic competition, the baron believed the games should encompass three things: athleticism, art and culture. Baron de Coubertin (Wikipedia)

The Olympic Museum: A Gold Medal experience in Lausanne, Switzerland Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions, Travel and Food

Lebanese Olympic team demands Israelis be removed from shared bus

Members of the Lebanese delegation to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games refused to travel on the same bus as their Israeli counterparts, with some attempting to block athletes from entering the vehicle, according to a report by an Israeli trainer who claimed to have witnessed the scene. “I kept on insisting that we board the

Lebanese Olympic team demands Israelis be removed from shared bus Read More »

International, Middle East, Sports & Competitions

Virginia Thrasher helps Team USA nab first gold medal in Rio Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO — Virginia Thrasher has a gold medal, but it won’t get her a pass with her physics professor. She will return to classes at West Virginia only 20 hours after returning to the U.S. on Aug. 17. “I’ll be in physics at 8:30 a.m.,” she said. Thrasher might want to volunteer for

Virginia Thrasher helps Team USA nab first gold medal in Rio Olympics Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions, USA

Rio preaches peace for the planet in understated Olympic opening ceremony

RIO DE JANEIRO – Ask a guy who makes small, compelling, artsy films to design the opening ceremony for the Olympics and he’s not going to hand you a teeth-rattling, bombs-exploding blockbuster. And so it was that the Games of the XXXI Olympiad officially opened in Rio de Janiero on Friday night, with a presentation

Rio preaches peace for the planet in understated Olympic opening ceremony Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions

Olympic carnival begins as Rio opening ceremonies open with a bang

RIO DE JANEIRO — For at least three hours on a balmy Friday night, Brazilians got a respite from months of bad publicity, a chance to belt out bossa nova, dance the samba, watch supermodel Gisele sashay across Maracana Stadium and be distracted from the political and economic turmoil that have weighed on the nation

Olympic carnival begins as Rio opening ceremonies open with a bang Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions

John Kerry, Mark Spitz fire up U.S. Olympics team

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Press Release) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Olympic swimming great Mark Spitz met with the U.S. Olympic delegation on Friday, offering both encouragement and praise. Here is a transcript of that meeting which was held at Brazil’s Naval Academy: SECRETARY KERRY: I don’t want to temper this energy

John Kerry, Mark Spitz fire up U.S. Olympics team Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions, USA

Drive my car

(Statistics through Aug. 1) Alon Day Photo via Wikimedia Commons Alon Day could make history as the first Israeli to drive in a NASCAR national series race. Day, 24, is poised to make his debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Aug. 13 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, USA Today reported on July 30.

Drive my car Read More »

Sports & Competitions

BRAZIL – Police and protesters clash as Olympic torch passes through Rio

Police used rubber bullets and pepper spray against protesters as the Olympic torch passed through a poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, two days before South America’s first Olympic Games open under tight security. Some 85,000 police, soldiers and security personnel will be deployed in Rio, more than double the amount in London

BRAZIL – Police and protesters clash as Olympic torch passes through Rio Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions

Amar’e Stoudemire finalizes two-year deal to play in Israel

Hapoel Jerusalem formally announced Monday that center Amar’e Stoudemire has agreed to a two-year contract with the Israeli League team. Stoudemire, who retired from the NBA after spending this past season with the Miami Heat, is a part-owner of Hapoel Jerusalem. In a first-person piece for The Players’ Tribune website, Stoudemire, 33, wrote of stepping

Amar’e Stoudemire finalizes two-year deal to play in Israel Read More »

Middle East, Sports & Competitions, USA

2016 Olympics: 7 Jewish American Olympians to watch in Rio

There are athletes, and then there are Olympic athletes. And then there are Jewish Olympic athletes. When the 2016 Summer Olympics open Friday, we’ll of course be cheering the American athletes — all 555 of them — and we’ll be rooting for Israel, too, which this year is sending its largest ever cohort to Rio.

2016 Olympics: 7 Jewish American Olympians to watch in Rio Read More »

International, Sports & Competitions, USA

Human- interest writer plumbs real lives of athletes

The Game Isn’t Everything: The reality beyond the arena by Bruce Lowitt; Barstad Communications; © 2015; ISBN 978153-4981126;  285 pages, $14.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Bruce Lowitt is an all-around sportswriter who covered the big NFL games for the Associated Press, and, later in his career, regaled readers with stories about sports

Human- interest writer plumbs real lives of athletes Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Bruce F. Lowitt, Donald H. Harrison, Sports & Competitions

UN remembers Israeli athletes murdered in 1972 Olympics

With the Olympic Games set to open in Rio de Janeiro next week, the Israeli Mission to the United Nations on Thursday held the first of its kind memorial event at the UN to honor the Israeli athletes murdered in the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics. Michal Shahar, the daughter of slain Olympic shooting

UN remembers Israeli athletes murdered in 1972 Olympics Read More »

International, Jewish History, Middle East, Sports & Competitions