Shul Runnings: Israeli bobsleigh team makes Olympic history
Israel secures first-ever Winter Olympics bobsleigh place, doubling its Milano Cortina delegation
Israel will make history at next month’s Winter Olympics after its men’s bobsleigh team clinched a first-ever Olympic qualification, boosting the country’s delegation to nine athletes for the Milano Cortina Games.
The four-man crew secured their place on Thursday after narrowly missing out on automatic qualification at the end of the season, before being informed that a higher-ranked nation had declined to use its full quota of athlete places – freeing up a spot for Israel.
The breakthrough marks a major milestone for Israeli winter sports and for a programme built over two decades.
Pilot and team captain AJ Edelman announced the news on Instagram, writing: “Dreams do come true. For this dream, that day is today.
“The Israeli Bobsled Team is now ‘The Israeli Olympic Bobsled Team.’ We are headed to Milan.
“[Thank you all for] being a part of this journey… let’s go make more history.”
The Olympic Committee of Israel described the qualification as a “historic achievement”.
Edelman will be joined on the sled by Menachem Chen, Ward Fawarseh and Omer Katz, with Uri Zisman travelling as an alternate.
The qualification comes despite additional hurdles imposed by Israel’s own Olympic authorities, who ruled that non-Israelis could not be used in qualifying races – a restriction not required under international rules and one that complicated the team’s path to the Games.
David Greaves, president of the Israeli Olympic Bobsleigh Skeleton Federation, said the moment represented the culmination of years of work.
“This has been a 24-year journey for me, from when we established the first bobsled team in 2002,” he told The Times of Israel. “That’s a huge sense of pride. To know that we’re contributing in a significant way to the delegation at these Olympic Games is very, very exciting.
“At the Olympic Games, with all the eyes from around the world, to see the Israeli flag flying now at the bobsled and skeleton track is something that will be forever meaningful to all of us.”
Elsewhere in the Israeli team, siblings Noa and Barnabos Szollos will compete in alpine skiing, Mariia Seniuk in figure skating, Attila Mihaly Kertesz in cross-country skiing and Jared Firestone in skeleton.
The bobsleigh team’s unlikely Olympic ascent has already drawn comparisons to Cool Runnings – but for Israel, the achievement carries unmistakable national and communal significance.
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