Our athletes are winners in the Maccabiah Games

All three local athletes who competed in the 20th annual Maccabiah Games in Israel this past July brought home gold!

May Stern, of Providence, Daniel Freeman, of West Warwick, and Donald McNeil, of Plainville, Massachusetts, joined athletes from over 70 countries at the games, which are often called “The Jewish Olympics.”

Stern, a sophomore at Brown University, started racing competitively when she was a sophomore at Classical High School, in Providence, and is currently on Brown’s track and field team.  She described her experience in the Maccabiah Games  as “exhilarating.”

“It was really amazing to be able to talk with some of the Israeli competitors about our different experiences with track, and to get to hear what it’s like to compete at the national level in Israel,” said Stern, who earned a silver medal in the 4x400, another silver in the 4x100, and a gold medal in the open 400.

“After competing in the 400 meters, I was ecstatic,” she said.

“It was exciting to hear the crowds … that came from all over the world to see this race. And when they put the gold medal around my neck, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had just won one of the gold medals that my country would bring back to the States. It was an honor.”

Javelin thrower Dan Freeman attended Bishop Hendricken High School, in Warwick, where he was an All-State athlete and ranked in the top 30 in the country in the javelin throw in 2010. He was a Division 1 varsity athlete for the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2010-15 and a two-time champion in the NCAA Championships Round 1 Competition. 

At the games, Freeman’s javelin throw of 65.32 meters (214 feet, 3 inches) earned him gold.   

 “From the moment I stepped onto the plane at JFK Airport, I knew I had a job to do,” Freeman said. “One of my favorite quotes is DYJ – Do Your Job – and I knew it was time.

“After I competed, it hit me – I had won, and all of the hard work and years of competition had finally shown through and come to fruition.”

Freeman currently competes in Olympic weight-lifting (snatch/clean and jerk) and coaches athletes in weightlifting and track and field, as well as working for UNC Charlotte in athletics fundraising.  He hopes to one day be an athletic director for a Division 1 university.

Wrestling is in McNeil’s blood: His father, Andy McNeil, was an All-Ivy League wrestler at Brown. The younger McNeil attended King Philip Regional High School, in Wrentham, Massachusetts, where he won two state titles, and later went on to compete at Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School, in Kingston, Pennsylvania, where he won a prep national title. At Rider University, he was a Division 1 national qualifier, and last year he finished eighth in the U.S. Open for wrestling. 

At the games, McNeil competed in the 97-kilogram weight class, winning gold.

“There was a lot of comradery between us and the Israeli athletes,” he said. “When I won a gold medal, and defeated a decorated wrestler from Israel in the finals, even the Israeli fans congratulated me.”

McNeil’s parents traveled to Israel for the games, and were in the stands when their son won.  McNeil said it was a moment he will never forget.

And McNeil had another memorable experience in Israel: “I can say that before going to Israel, I was not the most religious Jew. While in Israel, I had a Bar Mitzvah, and really connected with the historic sites and my faith,” he said. “I felt extremely proud to be Jewish, visiting the Western Wall, learning the history of Masada, seeing the ruins, and visiting Yad Vashem.”

McNeil, who is now in graduate school at Assumption College, pursuing a degree in rehabilitation counseling, was also recently inducted into the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for overcoming a spinal cord injury in high school and continuing to excel in wrestling.

Overall, the United States finished second in the games, behind Israel, earning 349 medals, 162 of them gold. 

SAM SERBY is a freelance writer who lives in East Greenwich. He previously worked at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv.