The first Israeli Olympic bobsled team, already a symbol of national grit and unlikely athletic ambition, has now been forced to contend with a brazen robbery that stripped them of passports, equipment, and thousands of dollars worth of belongings in the middle of their training season.
According to Breitbart, the teams apartment was broken into while they were training, leaving the athletes without critical gear and travel documents just days before official Olympic preparation begins in Italy. Team captain and driver AJ Edelman disclosed the incident on X, writing, While training for the Olympics, the @israelbobsled apartment was broken into during their training, and thousands of dollars of stuff and passports were stolen. What a season and posting a photo that appeared to show investigators at the scene.
The squad had been training in the Czech Republic and was due to travel to Italy, where official bobsled training is scheduled to begin Thursday at the Cortina Sliding Center in Cortina dAmpezzo, one of the co-host cities for the 2026 Winter Games. The resort town, roughly 105 miles northeast of Milan, is central to Italys plans for the Games, and the theft threatens to complicate the teams already challenging path to Olympic competition.
Edelman and his teammates Menachem Chen, Ward Fawarseh, Omer Katz, and alternate Uri Zisman comprise the first Israeli bobsled team ever to qualify for the Olympics. Edelman is also believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Games, while Fawarseh is expected to become the first Druze Olympian, representing an ethno-religious community with deep ties to Israel that has endured human rights abuses at the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria.
Their road to 2026 has been anything but smooth, marked by both geopolitical turmoil and the practical difficulties of building a winter sports program in a country better known for desert heat than ice tracks. Several members of Edelmans original team were called up to fight in Gaza after Hamass October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, forcing him to rebuild the roster and secure funding in a country where a large percentage of its population has never seen snow.
In a country where a large percentage of its population has never seen snow, curating a team willing to commit years of their life for bobsled was difficult, the New York Post explained in 2024. Most Israelis dont even know there is a winter Olympics, Edelman told the Post, underscoring how far outside the national sporting mainstream this project truly is.
The teams opportunity emerged only after Britain opted to send one bobsled crew instead of two to the 2026 Games, opening a lane for Israel to qualify. That decision allowed this group of unlikely ambassadors a pole-vaulter, sprinter, shot-putter, rugby player, and a former Olympic skeleton racer to step onto the world stage with a goal not merely to participate, but to contend for gold.
Their improbable story has drawn comparisons to the famed 1988 Jamaican bobsled team, whose underdog journey inspired the 1993 film Cool Runnings. As the AP reported, Edelman puts his own spin on the 1993 movie Cool Runnings, based somewhat on the Jamaican bobsled teams Olympic team from 1988. Using the Yiddish word for synagogue, he says he is thinking of this one as Shul Runnings.
Despite the robbery, Edelman says morale remains high, crediting a distinctly national resilience. Suitcases, shoes, equipment, passports stolen, and the boys headed right back to training today, he explained in his post, adding, I really believe this team exemplifies the Israeli Spirit.
While these athletes push forward in the face of crime and war, they are also contending with a different kind of disruption from the activist left. As athletes worldwide prepare for 2026, climate protesters have already begun demonstrating against the unsustainable use of wood to construct the bobsleigh track, in Cortina dAmpezzo, Breitbart News reported, raising the prospect that political theater could overshadow the achievements of competitors who have sacrificed for years to reach this level.
For Israels bobsled pioneers, the theft is just one more obstacle in a journey defined by adversity, national service, and personal sacrifice, yet their response returning immediately to training reflects a determination that resonates with many who value perseverance over victimhood.
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