10 Great Jewish Moments in Sports (part two) ■

Max Baer beats Hitler's favourite boxer■

Max Baer wasn't born a Jew, not as far as he ever concerned, and did not die as one as well. Sure, his grandfather was a Jew, and Baer's father, Jacob, was named after one of the Tribes of Israel, like his eight brothers and sisters, so young Max Baer received plenty of Jewish education growing up. But like many descendants of assimilated Jews - he wasn't a Jew until Adolf Hitler reminded him he was one all along.

After turning professional as a boxer in 1929, by 1933 Baer was already a well-known boxer. He became famous in an unfortunate way when three years prior, fellow boxer Frankie Campbell collapsed during a fight with Baer and died two days later as a result of Baer's punches. Baer was, as the legendary Jack Dempsey described him, "the biggest, strongest man fighting today, and he hits with terrible power".

Before receiving a shot to become world champion (which he became a year later), Baer was scheduled to fight Max Schmeling– a former world champion from Germany, in New-York. Two months before the fight, Schmerling was called to Hitler's office, where the Fuhrer himself asked him to deny any allegation towards Germany's persecution of Jews while in the US. When Baer entered the ring on 8 June 1933, in front of 60,000 fans and millions more listening on the radio, wearing – for the first time in his life – a Star of David on his trunks, he was fully aware of the ban set on Jewish athletes in Germany. From the first bell ring, he dominated the fight, hitting Schmerling with brutal force and knocking the German down several times. Deep into the 10th round, it was all over, when the referee stopped the fight and sent Baer celebrating. Baer promised to wear the Star of David for the rest of his career – and he did.

Kerry Strug Lands Gold on an Injured Ankle■

"I get the same question over and over 'You're Jewish?'".

Kerry Strug is probably not the greatest Jewish Athlete of all-times. In fact, she's probably not the greatest Jewish gymnast of all-times: that title belongs to Aly Reisman and her 6 Olympic medals, including a personal gold in the Floor Exercise. But this blog is called "the 10 great Jewish moments in sports", and if you were alive during the 1996 Olympics, held in Atlanta, then you remember this moment.

It was the final round of the Women's Gymnastics team competition, and the US was leading the table with a comfortable margin, on their way to the team's first-ever Olympic gold. Russia and Romania, the former rulers of the competition, could only hope for a mistake by the Americans, now performing on the Horse Vault. And the mistakes came, plural: The first four U.S. gymnasts landed their vaults but struggled to land them cleanly. The fifth gymnast fell twice. It was all eyes on Strug to deliver a solid jump to secure the gold medal.

She failed. Her first jump was 'under', and she fell during the landing. And if that wasn't enough, she hurt her ankle during the landing. Strug, now visibly limping, still had the choice of attempting a second time. "Do we need this?", she asked her coach, the famous Bella Karolyi. Not knowing the scores achieved by the other teams, she faced the vault again. When her feet touched the ground on landing, "It felt like a bomb went off", as she immediately sprained her ankle badly. But she managed to stay up on one leg, earning a score of 9.712 and securing her place in history: though her injury forced her out of the individual events finals she qualified to, the image of the tiny (1.41 meters) and tough gymnast being carried by her coach to the podium is one of the most iconic memories sports has to offer.

Sheila Van Damm breaks Stirling Moss's record■

Sheila Van Damm's family was far from being your average Jewish family: her father, Vivian, was a prominent London theatre impresario, managing the controversial Windmill Theatre. Nothing in her upbringing suggested a career as a race driver, yet the nude women on the Windmill's stage did play a part in it: her first race was a publicity stunt, in a car with "Windmill Girl" written on the side of it.

In fact, Sheila only learned how to drive as part of her service in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), but once she sat behind the wheel – you couldn't stop her. During the 1950s she won the Coupe des Dames, the highest award for women, in the Alpine Rally, the Women's European Touring Championship, and the Monte Carlo Rally.

During the 1953 Monte Carlo rally, in a road near Jabbeke, Belgium, Van Damm drove her prototype Sunbeam Alpine sports car at an average speed of 120 mph, breaking the world record for 2-3 litres cars held by the legendary Stirling Moss. While records are missing, she is probably the only woman to hold such a record until the end of the millennium. After retirement she returned to the Windmill Theatre she inherited from her father and ran it until its closure in 1964.

Harold Abrahams immortalized ■

Jesse Owens. Karl Lewis. Usain Bolt. Harold Abrahams. 100 metres Olympic champions, fastest men on Earth at their time. Even considering that the Olympic movement was mainly a white athletes club until the 1950s, this is one list you won't expect the son of Isaac and Esther to be on.

After contributing to Britain's fourth place at the 1920 Olympic 4X100m relay race – and after registering to Cambridge Law School, which probably made mother Esther very proud, Abrahams set his eyes on that list exactly. One month before the 1924 Paris Games, he set the English record in the long jump (7.38 m), a record which stood for the next 32 years – yet he decided not to compete in that event in Paris. On the evening of 7 July, Abrahams took his place at the starting line, with a mission to become the fastest man alive. 10.6 seconds later he achieved it. He won a second Olympic medal, a silver one, as part of the British 4X100m team.

Abrahams retired a year later following an injury. He worked as an athletics journalist for forty years, becoming a commentator on the sports for BBC radio and writing several books. In 1936, he reported the Berlin Olympics for the BBC, and later in his life, he became president of the Jewish Athletic Association. Three years after his death in 1978, Abrahams was immortalised in the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire. Though the movie exaggerates on Abrahams' religion and his encounters with antisemitism while studying in Cambridge, it is worth mentioning that even though he never shied away from his Jewishness, and even fostered two Jewish refugee children during WW2, in real life Abrahams was an assimilated Jew and never claimed he encountered antisemitism while in Cambridge. You can learn more of this by watching ITV's documentary 'The Real Chariots of Fire'.

Alex Averbukh sings Hatikvah in Munich■

“30 years ago this stadium, the Olympic Stadium in Munich, held a memorial for the eleven murdered Israeli Olympic teammates. Tonight, an Israeli athlete is crowned European Champion in the exact same place”. That athlete was pole-vaulter Alex Averbukh.

Born in Soviet Russia, Averbukh started pole vaulting at the age of 9, and by the time he made Aliyah to Israel at the age of 24 he was already a promising decathlete. But it was in Israel where he rose to a world-class level, having chosen to focus on the pole vault alone. During the decade following his Aliyah, Averbukh was crowned European Champion twice (2002, 2006), as well as a silver and bronze medallist at the World Championships.

When Averbukh entered the stadium in Munich, the expectations of an entire country that were laying on his shoulders. To that pressure one might add Averbukh's personal tragedy, losing his supportive father earlier that year. His two main rivals that night were German, and as such, they enjoyed the crowd support – but Averbukh was not to be stopped that night. He cleared 5.70m and 5.80m, before clearing 5.85m in his first attempt to secure gold. 30 years after it was played in a memorial remarking the worst moment in Jewish sports history, Hatikvah was now playing in the Munich Olympic stadium for a whole different reason.

Honorary Jew: David Beckham bends England to the World-cup■

“I don’t believe it”.

All right, all right, quit yelling – David Beckham is not Jewish and this is not a ‘Jewish’ moment. But because his grandfather was, and Beckham himself said he’s 'half-Jewish', and even wrote in his autobiography that he "probably had more contact with Judaism than with any other religion", and he has a bunch of tattoos in Hebrew, we'll make him an honorary Jew - in the spirit of togetherness, so we can all recall one of England's greatest football moments. And who would have thought just three years prior to that moment, it would come from the same foot that got Beckham labelled as 'one stupid boy' – after being sent off during the 1998 World Cup match against Argentine.

Beckham had to rebuild his reputation as a leader following that game, and he did so through hard work and team achievements, winning the famous Treble with Manchester United the following year and adding another league championship in 2000. By 2001 he was named England's Captain, and led the team to what seemed to be a successful World Cup preliminary round, that included a 5-1 thrashing of Germany.

When it came to the last game all England had to do is to match Germany's result against Finland in its own match against Greece. But nothing good comes easy, and by the time Germany's match ended in a draw, England was heading into injury time trailing 2-1. But then came one last free-kick, right at the 93rd minute, and one self-proclaimed Jew bent it like only he could, sending England straight to the World Cup.