Israel’s first Olympic bobsled team heads to Italy in bid they have dubbed ‘Shul Runnings’

In a historic moment for Israeli winter sports, an unlikely group of athletes is set to make their mark as Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsled team at the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games. The diverse team, consisting of a pole-vaulter, sprinter, shot-putter, rugby player, and a former Olympian, embodies a spirit of determination that transcends their limited experience with the sport.

AJ Edelman, the team’s founder and leader, is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Olympics. Adding to the team’s groundbreaking nature, Ward Farwaseh is likely to become the first Druze athlete to participate in the Olympic Games. The Druze are a religious minority with just one million members worldwide, including approximately 115,000 in Israel and 25,000 in the Golan Heights.

Their Olympic journey comes at a particularly challenging time for Israeli athletes on the international stage. Israel’s participation in global sporting events has faced boycotts and criticism amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has resulted in over 71,800 Palestinian deaths according to Gaza health authorities, and widespread destruction across the territory.

Despite these challenges, the team members express pride in representing their country. “I’m very sure that with this program now — with the infrastructure that has been set up — Israel will become a force in bobsled,” said Edelman, who playfully describes their journey as “Shul Runnings,” a nod to the 1993 film “Cool Runnings” about the Jamaican bobsled team, with “shul” being the Yiddish word for synagogue.

Edelman’s path to becoming a two-time Olympian is itself a testament to perseverance. In 2014, a skeleton scout dismissed him, telling the American-Israeli from Massachusetts that he was “no Tom Brady.” Undeterred despite having scoliosis and poor balance, Edelman taught himself through YouTube tutorials and qualified for the 2018 Olympics, where he finished 28th in skeleton.

Following that experience, Edelman set his sights on building Israel’s first bobsled team. “It’s very tough for me to understand what would compel anyone else to want to get inside of basically a trash can and get kicked off the side of a mountain. Who does that?” he reflected.

His recruitment efforts included messaging members of Israel’s rugby team on Instagram, eventually connecting with Fawarseh, from the Druze city of Majhar in northern Israel. Initially skeptical, Fawarseh admitted, “I didn’t believe it. I didn’t even know that there was a Winter Olympics before, until I met AJ.”

The team’s Olympic ambitions faced a major setback after October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages. As Israel mobilized its response, most of Edelman’s original teammates were drafted into military service.

Undaunted, Edelman and Fawarseh recruited a new lineup including shot-putter Menachem Chen, sprinter Omer Katz, pole-vaulter Uri Zisman, and crossfit athlete Itamar Shprinz as coach. Remarkably, Shprinz had to ask what bobsledding entailed before accepting the role. Two days later, he was on his way to Europe, then Canada, where his first experience in the sled left him unconscious: “It was terrible, I passed out. It’s a hard sport.”

Despite these obstacles, the team secured their Olympic qualification at Lake Placid last month.

Israel’s Olympic delegation will include five additional athletes: figure skater Maria Seniuk, skiers Noa Szollos and Barnabas Szollos, cross-country skier Atila Mihaly Kertesz, and skeleton athlete Jared Firestone.

Yael Arad, chair of the Israel Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee, addressed the Israeli Olympians in a letter: “Leave in peace and return in peace. You are carrying the torch of generations of Jewish and Israeli sports tradition, and every time you wave the Israeli flag, do so in the name of those who dreamed and did not arrive, those who are in our hearts forever.”

The Israeli athletes’ participation has not been without controversy. Some have called for restrictions similar to those imposed on Russian competitors, who must compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes” without national symbols. The International Olympic Committee has stated that the legal grounds for such action against Israel have not been met, though without elaborating on their reasoning.

“There was an athlete who told us in the summer that he would never represent Israel because ‘you don’t kill children.’ We’ve always known that those sentiments exist,” Edelman acknowledged. “On the team, we don’t modify the behavior too much. We’re proud.”

Zisman shared a conversation with his concerned mother: “‘Isn’t it dangerous that you’ll have a Star of David on your back?’ I say, no mom, that’s what we do. We do the best we can.”