Bangor’s Shapero enjoys Maccabiah Games

When Kayle Shapero saw the images from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, she couldn’t help but think of her own experiences this summer.

Shapero was part of a U.S. delegation of athletes that traveled to Israel for the 16th Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style gathering for Jewish athletes from around the world.

“It was kind of scary,” said Shapero, who was a member of the U.S. junior swim team and the only Mainer in the U.S. delegation. “This is kind of arrogant to say, but sometimes we think living here we can’t be affected by things that are going on in the rest of the world. I think this may have brought us to our senses.”

The Bangor High School sophomore never wavered from her decision to fly to Jerusalem for the Games, which went off safely, although hundreds of other athletes did. Shapero said she hopes that won’t happen for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“I think it’s a good thing,” she said. “We still had the Maccabiah Games even with all the things going on in Israel. I think it’s important just to keep going.”

Security at the Maccabiah Games may have been tighter than normal because tensions in the Middle East had escalated in the months before the Games.

That’s something Americans may have to get used to, Shapero thinks.

“When you walk around Jerusalem, you always see guards,” she said. “I was almost thinking [Tuesday] that we’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like to live in Israel and to experience this type of thing every day.”

The guards posted around Jerusalem are a part of everyday life, and Israelis go on. So did the Maccabiah Games, which provided Shapero a chance to meet Jewish athletes from other countries, mingle with some world-class athletes, and gain experience in a big-time international swim meet.

Shapero, who swims for the Hurricane Swim Club of Bangor, won three silver medals for participating on relay teams and shared a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke with an Israeli swimmer (only two swimmers from each country can place in the top three, and Shapero’s time was the next-fastest).

“My times were overall pretty good and I did pretty well,” she said. “It was exciting because we got to swim with all of the open swimmers, including Lenny Krayzelburg.”

Krayzelburg, a triple gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics, was a member of the U.S. open swim team.

It was also an opportunity for Shapero to swim in an Olympic-size 50-meter pool after spending her swimming career in a 25-yard pool.

“It’s different because you don’t have as many turns and it’s longer, so you can’t go as fast in the beginning,” she said. “You have to pace yourself.”

Shapero and her teammates lived in the athletes’ village for the first week of the Games and traveled the country. Shapero had been to Israel before, but she enjoyed the tour this time as her teammates saw the sights for the first time.

“A majority of the people had never been there before,” she said. “It was really nice for them to have the experience of being with the whole USA team and everyone was Jewish. It was great.”