Maya Calé-Benzoor

Maya Calé-Benzoor

Personal information
Birth name	מיה קלה-בנצור
Nationality	Israel
Born	(1958-09-05) September 5, 1958
Sport
Sport	Track & field
Event(s)	100 metre dash; long jump; triple jump
College team	Northern Arizona University
Achievements and titles
Personal bests	100 metre dash: 12.19 (1977) long jump: 6.27 (1984)
Medal record Track and field Representing Israel Maccabiah Games 1981 Israel Women's long jump European Masters’ Championships 2001 Women's triple jump

Maya Calé-Benzoor (also "Kalle-Bentzur"; מיה קלה-בנצור; born September 5, 1958) is an Israeli former Olympic runner and long jumper.

Calé-Benzoor set the Israeli indoor long jump record (6.13 metres). She was a medalist at the 1973 Maccabiah Games, and at the 1981 Maccabiah Games she won the gold medal in the long jump. She won a bronze medal in the triple jump at the European Masters’ Championships in 2001.

She was born in Israel, and is Jewish.

Education

Calé-Benzoor has a B.Ed. in Physical Education from Northern Arizona University (1984), where she set the school outdoor long jump record at 20' 6" (6.10 metres), NAU records in both the women's indoor and outdoor long (20' 6".00) and triple jumps (41' 3".75), and 40' 5".00 in the indoor triple jump. She placed third in the triple jump at the 1984 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships meet. Calé-Benzoor was an NCAA All American in 1984. In 1989 she was inducted into the NAU Athletic Hall of Fame.

She also has a Diploma in Physiotherapy Studies from Wingate Institute in Israel (1981), a Master’s Degree in Sport Injury Rehabilitation from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia (1990), and a PhD in Welfare and Health Studies from Haifa University.

Running and long jump career

Her personal bests were 12.19 in the 100 metre dash (in 1977), and 6.27 metres in the long jump (in 1984). She set the Israeli indoor long jump record (6.13 metres).

Calé-Benzoor was a medalist at the 1973 Maccabiah Games. At the 1981 Maccabiah Games she won the gold medal in the long jump.

Calé-Benzoor competed for Israel at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California at the age of 25. In the Women's 100 metres she came in 6th in Heat 5 with a time of 12.30 (missing qualifying for the next round by .04 seconds), and in the Women's Long Jump she came in 16th with a jump of 6.07 metres (missing qualifying for the next round by 0.12 metres).

She won a bronze medal in the triple jump at the European Masters’ Championships in 2001.

Career after the Olympics

Calé-Benzoor worked as a physiotherapist and clinic manager in Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia, and became the First Head of the Women’s Sports Committee at the Maccabi Israel Center. She was the Deputy Manager of the Physiotherapy Department at Wingate Institute, and is now the Director of Sports Injury Rehabilitation at Wingate Institute and a Lecturer in the Physiotherapy Program at Haifa University.