When five members of AJ Edelman’s bobsled team were called up to compete in Gaza after October 7, many expected him to cancel the season and wait to train for next year. Ta.
But as a pilot for the Israeli bobsled team, Edelman felt it was essential for his homeland to be on the international stage.
“The natural reaction to all of this was to walk away,” Edelman told the Post. “That was unacceptable to me. It is very important that the team continues to represent Israel this year.”
without any teammates – The competitive bobsled season, which consists of two- and four-person events, began less than a month after the war began, but with each competition sometimes being held several weeks apart, Edelman We have begun the process of finding replacements for each race.
None of the new employees had ever played bobsled, and some had never even heard of the sport. However, they all wanted to bring glory to their country and allow Israel to keep their team.
Daniel Jackson, a New Jersey-based real estate agent who plays on the Israeli national soccer team, announced he was out on two weeks’ notice because another rookie was injured.
“If I couldn’t go over there, the Israeli team wouldn’t be able to participate. I took this opportunity and thought it was a great way to represent Israel,” Jackson told the Post.
Against the odds, Edelman’s group of athletes emerged victorious. The Israeli team currently ranks third in the North American circuit, which is made up of the world’s top teams competing on the U.S. and Canadian circuits.
So far this season, Israel has won five medals and achieved the country’s first podium.
“This really represents what people can accomplish when they really try to represent their country,” Edelman said.
Like his new teammates, Edelman’s path to bobsledding was non-traditional.
The 32-year-old was scouted by Israel’s national ice hockey team after competing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but chose instead to pursue a job in the technology industry.
After immigrating to Israel in 2016, he chose to pursue skeleton, the sport of solo skating.
Edelman was given the “worst scouting report ever for an Olympic skeleton athlete” by the Skeleton School in Lake Placid. “Never be competitive. ”
For many athletes, scouting reports are extremely important for gaining sponsorship. But like Tom Brady, Edelman wrote his own scouting reports and trained himself by watching 12 hours of YouTube videos every day. Ultimately, Edelman qualified for his 2018 Olympics, finishing 28th.
During the pandemic, Edelman retired from skeleton and focused on bobsledding.
In a country where the majority of the population has never seen snow, it was difficult to assemble a team willing to dedicate years of their lives to bobsledding.
But because Edelman recruited a mix of Jewish and Arab-Israeli athletes, they missed out on qualifying for the 2022 Olympics by 0.1 seconds.
His current focus is on the 2026 Olympics in Milan, but there are many challenges ahead before he can represent Israel in bobsled.
Edelman’s sleds are the least funded team on the competitive circuit, and unlike most teams, the Israelis receive no government funding or subsidies.
Each practice costs $70, and teams complete up to 250 practices per year. Coaching costs him $50,000 in addition to travel and lodging, but these elements are subsidized with state funds for teams like the United States.
Since the war began in Israel on October 7, the team has also lost three corporate sponsors, fearing backlash for working with Israeli sports teams.
“The slide for Israel has far more drawbacks than the slide for other countries,” Edelman said. “But Israel is the reason I continue to operate, Israel is the only reason I do this. I was born Jewish, but I chose Israel. I would only compete for Israel. .”
For Edelman, bobsledding is a full-time job between practice, recruiting and, most importantly, fundraising. He spends most of his year raising money from the Manhattan apartment of his older brother, Broadway comedian Alex Edelman, and does odd jobs such as driving for Uber to earn money. There are also many.
He is supported by Israeli skeleton champion Jared Firestone. They are seeking corporate sponsorships and individual donations to help defray some of the competition’s costs.
Firestone, a former track and field athlete at Tulane University, retired from competitive sports in 2012. A year later, he suffered a mild stroke, which prompted his return to competitive sports.
“Life is short. After my stroke, I decided to pursue my original dream of becoming a professional athlete,” Firestone said.
After watching the 2014 Olympics, Firestone decided to learn to race skeletons and was quickly hired by the U.S. development team. Firestone quickly decided to represent Israel instead, replacing Edelman after his 2018 Olympic appearance.
Firestone’s extensive work as a skeleton athlete is a far cry from his experience with Team USA.
“I went from having almost everything I wanted, including free housing, coaching, and access to training equipment, to having nothing. I’m more than just an athlete. I’m a physical therapist, coach, and traveler. I’m also an agent and a sled mechanic,” he said.
Everyone involved in the program reiterated how important it is to see Israel succeed and to be ambassadors for the homeland.
“I meet a lot of people every year who have never met a Jew before and have misconceptions. Sports is better than most others in terms of removing misconceptions, simply because of the unity between athletes. They work better than anything else. They are my rivals, we are competing for the same Olympic spots, but at the end of the day, we empathize with each other more than anyone else.” He said.
This year, instead of advertising, Firestone is putting October 7th hostage stickers on its sleds. Firestone felt proud that players and spectators could come up to him and ask about the hostage situation, and that he could educate them on how the situation was unfolding.
For Oli Magnesy, the desire for success was driven by a loved one back home.
Magnesi, a CrossFit athlete and Israeli Navy reservist, was approached by Edelman to fill in for the race in Calgary. Two days later, he flew to Canada to learn bobsledding. Magnesy tore his meniscus shortly after training began, but he rehabbed it in preparation for Team Israel’s medal-winning Park City race.
“Many of my closest friends lost their lives. Some at the Nova Festival, some in the war itself.” You would never leave your family and friends behind for something like this. It wasn’t easy. But I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to bring a medal to Israel and to my friends who were killed, and that’s what happened,” Magnesy said.
Edelman has no doubt that his team will qualify for the Winter Olympics in 2026, based on their incredible performances over the past few years.
David Greaves, current president of Bobsled Skeleton Israel and founder of Israel’s first bobsled team with former 49ers Super Bowl champion John Frank, said the former bobsledder-turned-Israeli athlete excelled in the program. I appreciate that they have brought in a lot of human resources.
“At the 2018 Olympics, young Jewish athletes saw AJ with the Israeli flag on his back and thought, “I can do this, too.” A lot of what we’ve done, in part, ’cause we’ve been to the Olympics,” Greaves said.
The Olympic qualifying tournament will begin in October 2025, with practice matches taking place the following year. For now, Edelman remains proud of what his team accomplished.
“I believe that will happen when we make the game in 2026,” he said. “I can look back on this season and say I can be really proud of what we accomplished.”
