Jason Lezak heads new crop of Jewish Hall-of-Famers

Olympic gold-medal swimmer Jason Lezak headed a delegation of 11 new inductees yesterday into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at Netanya's Wingate Institute. Lezak, who lit the torch during Monday's opening ceremony of the 18th Maccabiah, said he was excited to finally march. Though he has been to three Olympic Games, he said he never went to an opening ceremony because the swimming events always began the following day, "and standing for 12 hours on your feet" was not an option.

Lezak, who is in Israel for the first time, told Haaretz before the induction that he was enjoying "not just the swimming part" but also the touring and being "just one of the guys on the team." Nonetheless, the U.S. swimming delegation showed up to cheer for him at the award ceremony.

Mitch Gaylord, who won four medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad in gymnastics, spoke of the camaraderie that came out of his experience at the 1981 Maccabiah Games. He recalled how after one event in Los Angeles, when his scores came up the audience applauded, but when the applause died down one section kept on going. It turned out it was the Israelis he had competed against in 1981.

Donald Spero, who was the world rowing single sculls champion in 1966, said he owed a debt of thanks to the 1961 Maccabiah Games, which provided his first exposure to international competition in single sculls.

Orna Ostfeld, one of two Israelis honored along with Paralympic gold medalist Keren Leibowitz, spoke about her struggle to advance women's sports in Israel. The basketball coach who has won four titles with Ramat Hasharon also expressed gratitude to her father for driving her long distances to practice "at a time when it was rare for 12-year-old girls to play basketball."

Other inductees included Maury Allen, an author, reporter and columnist for 53 years and Ira Berkow, a Pullitzer Prize sports feature writer-columnist for the New York Times. The Hall also inducted posthumously Istvan Barta, the goalkeeper for Hungary's 1928 silver medal water polo team; Elias Katz, who won a gold medal in the 3,000-meter cross country for Finland in 1924; Harry Simmons, who was Major League Baseball's first official historian and its schedule-maker for 20 years; and Harold U. Ribalow, the author of The Jew in American Sports."

Michael Kevehazi, who chaired Maccabi World Union from 1986 to 1994, was recognized posthumously with the 2009 lifetime achievement award.