Parents and athletes returning from the Maccabiah Games in Israel say junior athletes endured substandard accommodation that included cockroach-infested rooms, long waits for transportation, skimpy food and brown tap water.

They are angry at the disparity between the comfortable hotel accommodation for older athletes and the hardships endured by their teenaged children, especially since they paid the same $7,500 to Maccabi Canada that the older athletes did.

“It was a comedy of errors,” said one parent, who requested anonymity to spare her child embarrassment. “They were not mistreated, but they were not treated in a way we expected them to be treated when we sent them on this trip.”

Maccabi Canada is acknowledging there were inadequacies in the accommodations. Allen Gerskup, president of the organization, said Maccabi’s executive met late last week and the parents’ complaints were top of the agenda.

“We’re looking at it. We are aware of the concerns of the parents. We’re not taking it lightly. They just need to give us time to investigate it and see if everything we should have been doing was done.”

The mother, who was not in Israel for the Games, said her son’s team had to wait 10 hours on arrival before they were given a room. The next day they were moved into rooms that were dirty and bug-ridden, she said.

The tap water was brown and “the kids used to joke it was the cockroaches,” she said.

Little consideration was given for their schedules, so if they missed a meal because of a game, there was no food waiting for them when they returned. On one occasion, the team waited 3-1/2 hours after playing a game in 30-degree heat before being taken back to the athletes village, she said.

Canada’s junior athletes were housed at the Neve Hadassah youth village near Netanya. The parent said Maccabi Canada’s response to the poor conditions was inadequate, and she contrasted it to the British team’s reaction.

The Jewish Chronicle of London reported that young British athletes were “relocated to a five-star hotel by Team Great Britain bosses after just 24 hours due to health and safety concerns.”

One of the junior Canadian athletes said conditions “were pretty bad. We got there at 2 p.m. and didn’t get in [to a room] until 10:30 at night.”

They were moved the next day. The first room did have some cockroaches, but the second one wasn’t bad, he said, though it was crowded.

Expecting four to a room, two additional teammates were given mattresses and joined them because of a shortage of space.

Though they were told by Maccabi officials to drink the tap water while at the village and bottled water at games, their trainer advised them to stick to bottled water all the time. “We bought our water” at a canteen, he said.

“Most of us ate there,” he said. “The food was a lot better than the food we were given. Sometimes we didn’t know what it was. It didn’t taste good… It’s not something you give an athlete before competition.”

A second parent told The CJN inadequate food was a persistent problem for her son’s team. The athletes were denied seconds when they asked for it, and on returning from games, they would find meals would not be waiting for them.

She said security was inadequate. The rooms could not be locked and her son’s wallet and $200 (US) was stolen. Other athletes had an iPod and and a cellphone taken, she said.

Britain pulled its athletes out of substandard accommodations, and “Maccabi Canada should have done something similar,” she added.

Maccabi Canada will discuss the situation with every parent. So far, athletes in smaller centres like Winnipeg and Calgary have already been called by local Maccabi officials.

The purpose of the calls is “to explain what the situation was and to assure them something like this won’t happen again,” Gerskup said.

Maccabi Canada believed housing the young athletes in a youth village would provide them “with an Israeli experience – a kibbutz/boarding school type of environment.”

Gerskup said the first day was difficult and many had to wait for rooms. “We had everything set up, but it became a mad scramble for accommodations.”

After the first night, the youngsters were put up adequately, he said.

As for the cockroaches, “It’s Israel. They are going to be everywhere,” he said.

Once informed of the problem, an exterminator was called and it was dealt with. A cleaning crew was also summoned after complaints were received, he added.

Gerskup dismissed critiques of the quality of the food, comparing it to summer camps where some campers like the food and others don’t.

As to the security issue, he acknowledged problems, but the doors were such that locks could not be attached.

“Yes, there were problems,” Gerskup said. “When we heard about it, we took care of it. Ninety-five per cent of the people were happy.”

“They had a great time and a great Israeli experience.”

Despite the difficulties at the youth village, the young athlete does not regret the trip.

“I’m still happy I went. It could have been a lot better, but we made the best of it.”

But, he added a caveat: “If they were trying to get us to live in Israel, it really wasn’t the best example.”