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By Donald H. Harrison
 SAN DIEGO—As chairman of the investment committee of San Diego’s Jewish Community Foundation, Mark Stuckelman knows about stocks, bonds, commodities, and precious metals. So should we be surprised that after a stopover in Paris, he is coming home with both gold and silver from Israel?
However, this kind of gold and silver you can’t simply trade for on some market, you have to pay for it with endurance, talent, and speed—all of which Stuckelman proved he had in good supply during the recent 18th Maccabiah Games in Israel. He won the gold medal in the 45-49 age group in the triathalon (swimming, biking and running) and won a team silver medal in the timed bike trials.
All in all, not a bad haul for the Del Mar resident who has competed in numerous events on American soil, but participated for the first time last month in what has become known as the “Jewish Olympics.”
In a telephone interview from Paris on Thursday, a happy Stuckelman reported that there were 180 competitors of all ages in the July 17th triathalon event, and that with a time of two hours nineteen minutes 45.05 seconds, he not only finished first in his age category but also was among the top ten percent of the finishers overall. He came in 18th in the race that was run in Tiberias. It began with a 1.5 kilometer swim, continued with a 40 kilometer bike ride, and ended with a 10 kilometer run.
He said his level of performance runs much along the same order: his swimming is okay, his biking is good and his running is comparatively excellent.
I asked if he felt he had to conserve his energy in the earlier events in order to have the stamina for the finale. He responded that whereas that is the strategy of some triathletes, it isn’t his. He says he gives each event his all.
The 27.5-kilometer team bike trials were held on July 13 in the vicinity of Kibbutz Urim close to Israel’s border with Gaza –for Stuckelman, a tune up for the triathalon.. His team placed second to an Israeli team featuring two brothers who are world-ranked bicyclists.
What does he plan to do with his medals and other Maccabiah souvenirs, perhaps a wall display?
Stuckelman said he hadn’t decided, but said after he had lost his home in the Oakland Hills fire some years ago, he realized that the material possessions one has in one’s life don’t really matter—they can be lost in a blaze. What really is important in Stuckelman’s estimate is the ability to train and to
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participate in the fellowship that the Maccabiah symbolizes.
He said he never shall forget the wonderful feeling of the games’ opening ceremonies, when athletes from all over the world gathered on a field and traded their shirts, pins and other souvenirs with each other as they waited for the commencement of the formal march into the Maccabiah arena.
The United States—or “America”—is one of the first teams by the Hebrew alphabet to be called into the stadium, so Stuckelman said he and his fellow American athletes were treated to the spectacle of Jews representing countries from all over the world including India, Sweden, United Kingdom, a huge Russian team, and of course the host Israelis.
The ceremonies included entertainment as well as welcome speeches by Israel’s President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
As the opening ceremonies occurred on the evening of the day that Stuckerman had raced in the time trials, “I was pretty tired,” he recalled.
Stuckelman noted that another San Diegan on the American team also had won a gold medal in the triathalon: Galina Steinberg-Tatman, who turned in a time of two hours, twenty minutes, 44.10 seconds, about a minute off Stuckelman’s own mark. Steinberg-Tatman’s performance was exceptional, said Stuckelman. It earned her the title of fastest woman overall.
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