- July 16, 2026
- 8:02 pm
- Israel
The Ukrainian delegation successfully completed its performance at the XXII Maccabiah World Games in Israel.
The “Maccabi-Ukraine” team included 50 athletes from 11 Ukrainian cities. They participated in competitions in 13 sports and won awards in fencing, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, karate, judo, beach volleyball, and Greco-Roman wrestling.
The official page “Israel in Ukraine” reported 12 Ukrainian medals: three gold, four silver, and five bronze. However, the disciplines listed in the same publication, as well as separate reports from the Maccabi World Union, indicate a different result.
A detailed count shows that the Ukrainian team could have won 13 medal positions: three gold, three silver, and seven bronze.
The Maccabiah returned to Israel after being postponed
The XXII Maccabiah World Games were held in Israel from June 30 to July 14, 2026.
The opening ceremony took place on July 1 at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, and the closing event was held on July 13 in Tel Aviv.
Initially, the Maccabiah was planned to be held in the summer of 2025, but the competitions were postponed for a year due to the war between Israel and Iran and the associated security risks.
The Maccabiah is held in Israel every four years and is considered the largest international sports forum for Jewish athletes in the world. It is often called the “Jewish Olympic Games.”
The official website reported more than 8,000 athletes from approximately 55 countries, 45 sports, about 3,000 tournaments, and the same number of medals.
At the same time, journalists present at the opening reported about 5,000 actually arrived athletes, including about 2,000 representatives from Israel and 900 participants from the USA.
Organizers also spoke of 5,000 athletes from 55 countries — about half as many as at the previous Maccabiah in 2022. It is likely that the figure of 8,000 referred to the initially declared or registered composition, while some delegations reduced their participation due to the war, security issues, and travel difficulties to Israel.
The games were held under the slogan More Than Ever.
Organizers emphasized that after the events of October 7, 2023, and prolonged wars, the Maccabiah should become not only a sports tournament but also a demonstration of unity between Israel and Jewish communities in the diaspora.
The program included four main categories: juniors, Open, Masters, and Paralympic competitions.
Jerusalem became the main center for Open category competitions, Haifa hosted juniors, and Herzliya hosted Masters participants. Tournaments were also held in Tel Aviv, Hadera, Ra’anana, and other cities.
Representatives of the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization were involved in organizing the Maccabiah. They participated in the Games as athletes, staff, volunteers, and participants in official events.
Projects of the Maccabiah also included survivors of the Nova festival attack, former hostages, and families of those affected on October 7.
Ukraine was represented by athletes from 11 cities
The Ukrainian delegation included 50 athletes from:
- Kyiv;
- Kharkiv;
- Odesa;
- Dnipro;
- Vinnytsia;
- Zaporizhzhia;
- Mykolaiv;
- Poltava;
- Chernivtsi;
- Lviv;
- Khmelnytskyi.
The team was formed by the All-Ukrainian Association “Maccabi”. Ukrainian participants competed in 13 sports.
For Ukraine, participation in the Maccabiah had special significance.
Athletes represented a country that continues to resist full-scale Russian aggression. Many participants prepared for the competitions under conditions of air raids, shelling, destroyed infrastructure, and constant uncertainty.
Despite this, Ukraine managed to assemble one of the notable delegations from Eastern Europe and win awards in several individual, pair, and team disciplines.
Three gold medals for Ukraine
Maria Bogorad from Kyiv won a gold medal in fencing.
The Maccabi World Union reported her victory on the 12th day of the competition, noting the high level of preparation and confident performance of the Ukrainian athlete. The specific type of weapon was not specified in the available publication.
Sophia Chernomorova from Mykolaiv won gold in women’s doubles badminton.
In addition, the Ukrainian athlete became a bronze medalist in mixed doubles, winning two awards at the Maccabiah.
Svetlana Simacheva from Vinnytsia won in the women’s doubles table tennis tournament.
She became one of the most successful representatives of the Ukrainian delegation. According to “Maccabi-Ukraine,” Simacheva also received silver in the team tournament and bronze in individual competitions.
Silver in volleyball, karate, and table tennis
The women’s team “Maccabi-Ukraine” won a silver medal in the volleyball tournament of the Open category.
The Ukrainian team reached the decisive matches and finished the competition in second place.
David Shatokhin from Odesa received a silver medal in karate.
During the competition, he sustained an injury that prevented him from continuing to perform at the same pace. Despite this, the Ukrainian karateka managed to finish the tournament with silver.
Another silver medal position for Ukraine was brought by Svetlana Simacheva in team table tennis competitions.
Thus, according to separate publications of the Maccabi World Union, three silver results are confirmed: volleyball, karate, and team table tennis.
In the official message of the “Israel in Ukraine” page, four silver medals are indicated, but two of them are attributed to table tennis. It is likely that in preparing the final message, one of Svetlana Simacheva’s awards was misclassified.
Seven possible bronze results
The first medal of the Ukrainian delegation at the Maccabiah was won by Mikhail Rudy.
On July 6, he took third place in Greco-Roman wrestling competitions. “Maccabi-Ukraine” called his result the first success of the Ukrainian team at the 2026 Games.
Sophia Chernomorova received a bronze medal in mixed doubles badminton.
Vladislava Relis from Dnipro became a bronze medalist in junior judo competitions.
In English-language reports of “Maccabi-Ukraine,” her surname is indicated as Vladislava Rehlis.
Igor Makhini from Odesa won bronze in karate.
He competed alongside David Shatokhin, who received a silver medal.
Yana Yelkina from Odesa and Eleonora Kirilova from Vinnytsia became bronze medalists in beach volleyball.
Each athlete received a physical medal, but in the overall team standings, the result of the pair is usually counted as one medal position.
Junior Katerina Sagolovska from Kyiv received a bronze medal in team fencing competition.
Another bronze was won by Svetlana Simacheva in the individual table tennis tournament.
There are seven bronze medal positions:
- Greco-Roman wrestling;
- Badminton;
- Judo;
- Karate;
- Beach volleyball;
- Team fencing;
- Individual table tennis.
Why the official medal tally does not match
On the official page “Israel in Ukraine,” it is indicated that Ukraine won 12 medals:
- three gold;
- four silver;
- five bronze.
However, in the same publication, six bronze disciplines are listed: team fencing, karate, beach volleyball, judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, and badminton.
So even without considering Svetlana Simacheva’s individual bronze in table tennis, the list contains not five but six bronze results.
Separate publications of the Maccabi World Union add Simacheva’s bronze in the individual tournament to them. They also clarify that the athlete received gold in the women’s pair and silver in the team championship.
If we gather the published results and count each pair or team prize place as one position, the most likely outcome looks like this:
- three gold medal positions;
- three silver;
- seven bronze.
Total — 13 prize results.
Most likely, there was an editorial or arithmetic error in the final message: one bronze medal was omitted, and one of the table tennis results was incorrectly attributed to silver.
NANews — Israel News emphasizes that this is a restored result based on separate publications of the Maccabi World Union.
A publicly available final table of the Ukrainian delegation with the names of all participants, exact categories, and results of each final has not yet been published by the organizers. Therefore, the wording about 13 medals requires final confirmation from “Maccabi-Ukraine” or the organizers of the XXII Maccabiah.
More than a sports result
Regardless of the discrepancies in the counts, the performance of the Ukrainian team became a notable event at the Maccabiah-2026.
Ukraine sent 50 athletes from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Chernivtsi, Lviv, and Khmelnytskyi to Israel.
They competed in 13 sports and reached the podium in eight sports directions.
The Maccabiah once again showed that the ties between Israel and Jewish communities in Ukraine are preserved and developed even in the most difficult periods.
For Ukrainian athletes, it was not only an international competition but also an opportunity to represent their country, meet Jewish teams from around the world, and remind that Ukraine continues to fight, live, and win.