Figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Irina Slutskaya stood on the medal-winners' podium at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Along with a talent for triple jumps and difficult spins on ice, they shared the little-known fact that each had a Jewish parent.
This fall, 1994 Olympic figure skating champion Oksana Baiul discovered that she, too, belonged to that small group of skating Olympians with Jewish roots.
American gold-medal winner Hughes has a Jewish mother; her two older brothers became bar mitzvah. Slutskaya of Russia, who won the second-place silver medal, has a Jewish father. (American Sasha Cohen, who came in 4th at Salt Lake City, is also Jewish.)
Baiul, 26, returned to her Ukrainian hometown in late September, reuniting with a father she had never really known. She also confirmed a vague rumor she had heard years ago: her maternal grandmother was Jewish.
One such aspect is sports. Involvement in sports is universal throughout today's world. It serves as a bridge between nations and peoples, between nations and Israel, and between Israel and the Diaspora, as expressed by the Maccabiah Games. Physical culture and involvement in sports are among the processes that the Jewish People have undergone in the modern era.
The end of the eighteenth century is seen as the dawning of the era of modern sport. Jews were already involved in athletic activities by that time. Among the early top boxers who made their appearance in the English sports arena were Jews such as Samuel Elias, Barney Aaron, the Belasco brothers, and Isaac Bitton.
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