By Lisa Hornung
For Community
Louisville’s Dylan Breier, who will play field hockey at the University of Pennsylvania this coming term, will first represent the United States at the Maccabia Games in Israel in July. (photo provided by Dylan Breier)
A Louisville field hockey phenom will play for Maccabi USA at the 2022 World Maccabiah Games in Israel in July.
Dylan Breier, 18, a recent graduate of duPont Manual High School, will be in Israel for the games, which run from July 2 to 26.
The Maccabiah Games are akin to the Olympics for Jewish athletes from around the world.
A daughter of Ben and Shelly Breier, Dylan has played field hockey since the first grade and competed for Manual and Bluegrass Field Hockey during her high school career. She also played for International Field Hockey Club of Kentucky (IFHCK) in middle school and was on the Manual lacrosse team.
Breier will attend the University of Pennsylvania this fall, where she will continue playing field hockey.
The Maccabiah Games won’t be Breier’s first trip to Israel. She went there with her family a few years ago for a cousin’s wedding. She hopes to see more of the country this time around.
The Breiers are members of The Temple.
“I’m just excited to play at a high level before entering my first collegiate season, so that is a nice opportunity,” Breier said, “and I’m also just excited to explore Israel again and connect there in a deeper way and meet a bunch of new people.”
She hasn’t played with her teammates yet. They did compete in a tournament over the Memorial Day weekend, but the event conflicted with Breier’s high school graduation.
“I’ll just meet everyone on the first day, and we’ll have a good amount of practice days before we actually start playing to get to know each other,” she said. “Other than that, yeah, we’ll just start practicing when we get there.”
Breier has been named to the KHSAA State Field Hockey All-Tournament and the NFHCA Midwest All-Region teams.
First held at Ramat Gan in 1932 with 390 athletes from 18 countries, the Maccabiah is considered the Olympics for Jewish athletes. Traditionally held every four years, it has been interrupted only by World War II.
The last Maccabiah, which was held in 2017, attracted nearly 10,000 Jewish athletes from more than 75 countries, making the games the third largest international multi-sport event in the world, after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.
The Maccabi USA delegation sent 1,131 members to the 2017 Games, the largest traveling delegation in the history of Jewish sporting events.
The last Jewish Louisvillians to compete in the Maccabiah were Peyton Greenberg, a swimmer from Northwestern University, who won two silver medals, and Andrea Glazer, an equestrian from Auburn University, who also won a silver. Both competed in the 2017 Games.
Want to know more?
The 21st Maccabiah Games will run from July 12 to 26 in Israel. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 14 at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. More than 10,000 athletes from 80 counties will compete in 42 sports as well as masters, juniors and paralympic divisions. For the latest information about the Games, including medalists in your favorite contests, visit the official Maccabiah website at maccabiah.com/en/.