Israel’s First Olympic Bobsled Team on ‘Nearly Impossible Task’ of Reaching Milan Games, Overcoming Adversity

Israel is competing for the first time ever in Olympic bobsledding next week, and its team captain spoke with The Algemeiner about the many obstacles the athletes faced even before racing in the Milan Cortina Winter Games — including having to create a new team after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel and being robbed.

“Making the Olympics in bobsled as a team that hasn’t made it before is nearly unheard of,” Adam “AJ” Edelman, captain of the Israeli bobsled team, told The Algemeiner over the phone from Italy. “It just doesn’t happen unless you have an ‘Olympics credit card,’ like China for the Beijing Games, where they have guaranteed spots because they hosted. It is just nearly impossible to do … It is a massive accomplishment.”

The 31-year-old added that Israel’s bobsled team is the only one in this year’s Olympics whose members have not competed in the prior games.

“By making it into the [Winter] Games, Israel has done basically the impossible task of being within Olympic level, which is top 28,” he noted. “We’re very, very proud and content with knowing that in the four-man event especially we’re top 20, which is Olympic finals-worthy.”

On Saturday, Edelman revealed on X that the apartment where his teammates were staying during their final training for the 2026 Winter Games was robbed. Passports and “thousands of dollars” worth of personal belongings were stolen.

The team was training in the Czech Republic before heading to Italy when the incident took place, Edelman told The Algemeiner. He was in Italy at the time of the robbery and said his teammates have since replaced their passports but not their other belongings. The team has changed locations to continue training until their first Olympic competition on Feb. 16, which is a two-man event.

The team remains resilient despite the robbery and they are “just such a fine example of how we push forward in difficult circumstances,” Edelman, who is former Olympian in skeleton, wrote in a post on X.

“Such a gross violation — suitcases, shoes, equipment, passports stolen, and the boys headed right back to training today. I really believe this team exemplifies the Israeli Spirit [sic],” he added. He said in a separate post following the incident: “We are victors, never victims. Our journey is defined by moving forward, always. That’s the Israeli Spirit.”

The Israeli bobsled team is making history at the Olympics. Aside from Israel qualifying for the first time for Olympic bobsledding, Edelman is Israel’s first multi-sport Olympian, after competing previously in skeleton and now in bobsled. He said he is also the first Jewish bobsled pilot in the Olympic Games and one of his bobsled team members, 25-year-old Ward Fawarseh, is the first Druze Olympian.

Edelman — an American-Israeli from Brookline, Massachusetts — is the most decorated observant Jewish Olympian and is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to ever compete in the Winter Games. The other members of his bobsled team are Menachem Chen, 25; Uri Zisman, 30; and Omer Katz, 25; with Itamar Shprinz as their coach. Their journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics — which has been dubbed “Shul Runnings,” a reference to the movie “Cool Runnings” that tells the story of the Jamaican national bobsled team making the 1988 Winter Olympics — faced obstacles from the start.

Edelman had handpicked members for a different bobsled team several years prior and in 2021 he talked to The Algemeiner about them hoping to secure a spot to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics. But after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, members of the team were called up to serve in the Israel Defense Forces as reservists and the team fell apart. Edelman was forced to create a new team and it was several years in the making.

“I just flew in different random people from Israel,” he explained. “People who were athletes who I thought, ‘Maybe let’s give them a try in the sled and if they’re good enough, they might come back.’ And I would tell them, ‘Hold the sled like a shopping cart and imagine that you’re running with a shopping cart.’ And they would do one race at a time and then fly back home. We kind of just pieced the seasons together in a pretty amazing fashion … It was a constant search for years of finding the right people to get into the sled. It was a six-year search.”

The team consists of a pole-vaulter, sprinter, shot-putter, and rugby player. Edelman said they bonded very quickly, despite their different sporting backgrounds.

“It’s been a long journey. It’s probably the most unique bobsled story ever,” Edelman said. “This is the sort of s–t that can only happen in Israel. I think that for Israel, making the [Olympic] Games for Israel in bobsled is far harder than for any other country because none of the things are set up that would give you any sort of help in bobsled. Bobsled requires such a complex infrastructure of logistic support, fundraising, publicity so people know that you exist, mechanics, coaches, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a prior legacy with sleds and equipment and knowledge that could go down. All of that goes into making a bobsled program successful, and all of that just didn’t exist in the way that you want it to exist prior to now [in Israel].”

Edelman spoke to The Algemeiner during the team’s final training period in Europe before they make their Olympic debut. Aside from handpicking each member of the bobsled team, he also designed their bobsled. The theme for the design is “fire and ice,” and it is meant to represent “Israel is a hot country going down an icy track,” he told The Algemeiner.

He said he views himself as a “shliach” (messenger) for Israel, and that his efforts to help the Jewish state reach the Olympics in bobsled was always more for the country than for any personal gain for himself.

“For the longest period of time, I didn’t care much about being an Olympian or the Olympics itself. It was just about what I could accomplish for the country,” Edelman said. “The journey has always been so centered on what it can do for Israel and so there’s no pressure to represent Israel because that’s what it’s been since day one. And without representing Israel the journey means nothing.”

“There was a lot of pressure that I had post-10/7 to switch to the US team,” he revealed. “It would have been so much simpler and easier to make it on the US team … But there was only one reason to ever do this and it was to get Israel to the games in bobsled. And Israel truly deserves this.”

“I’m doing my part to do something that I think will be good for the people and the country,” Edelman explained. “I’ve always had a dream that the team would make it [to the Olympics] and it would necessitate or catalyze a change in the perception of how Israel and Jews perceive their place in sports in general and what we can accomplish. I just always believe that four-man bobsled being the premier event in the Winter Games … and Israel doing what is just essentially impossible for a country like Israel to do, to make it into the games in bobsled, is just such a phenomenal accomplishment … I truly believe that this is something that could have a hugely positive impact.”

Israel’s participation in the Olympics is taking place amid efforts to boycott or ban its presence in international sports, because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. Edelman was asked what he thought about the boycott efforts.

“I view Israeli athletes as ambassadors of the state; we carry the hopes and dreams of the state forward,” he replied. “As for other people who want to kick us out … I just don’t pay much attention to it. Who has time to go through all the haters?”

“I do hope and know that this is just going to continue to move [Israel] forward,” he added, referring to the Israeli bobsled team’s presence at the Winter Games. “Someone is going to take over from me, who is better than I was, and in the future Israel is going to be a force in the sport … The [bobsled] team stands for breaking ceilings, and when we break ceilings, we want to be the first but not the last. And I really hope that’s what we take from it; that’s what everyone takes from it.”

The Milan Cortina Winter Games kicked off on Friday night with an opening ceremony at San Siro Stadium. Israel’s delegation was booed during the procession. International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams said during a press conference on Saturday that he does not “like to see booing,” regardless of “whatever background” or “whatever country” an athlete or team represents.

“We want to see sportsperson-like behavior from everyone. It’s important that we support our athletes,” he added. “The whole idea, or one of the ideas of the Olympic movement, is that the athletes shouldn’t be punished for whatever their governments have done, and I think that’s really important, that we see the athletes and athletic performance for what that says about humanity.”