Israeli Bobsled Team Reports Robbery of Thousands

Imagine just how a lot pleasure there may be surrounding the Israeli Winter Olympics crew at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, particularly since they’re making their bow in one sport they’ve never competed in at the Olympic Games, according to an AP report this week:

TEL AVIV (AP) — Feel the rhythm, really feel the rhyme. Get on up, Israel, it’s bobsled time!

A handful of various athletes — a pole-vaulter, sprinter, shot-putter, rugby participant, and former Olympian in skeleton — will compete as Israel’s first bobsled crew during this 12 months’s Milan Cortina Winter Games.[…]

Most of these guys had never touched a sled before this season. Their chief, AJ Edelman, is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to ever compete in a Winter Games. Another founding member of the crew, Ward Farwaseh, will seemingly to be the first Druze Olympian.

They even coined a enjoyable nickname for the crew, Shul Runnings, paying tribute to “Cool Runnings” about the unlikely Jamaican bobsled crew:

As for how Edelman describes his long journey to Italy?

He places his own spin on the 1993 film “Cool Runnings,” based considerably on the Jamaican bobsled crew’s Olympic crew from 1988. Using the Yiddish phrase for synagogue, he says he’s pondering of this one as “Shul Runnings.”

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Watch:

Tell me ⁦@israelbobsled⁩ isn’t one of the best ⁦@NBCOlympics⁩ tales of 2026… pic.twitter.com/RgV8rkQQ3W

— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) January 24, 2026

Once the crew arrived early in Italy for the opening ceremony, nicely forward of their debut competitors next week, their plan was to wedge in some last-minute training. That was when issues took an ominous flip. Writing Saturday on his X account, about the bobsledding crew’s condominium getting damaged into and ransacked, including “thousands of dollars of stuff,” including sneakers and gear, along with their passports, stolen. Edelman explained: 

While training for the Olympics the @israelbobsled condominium was damaged into during their training, hundreds of {dollars} of stuff and passports had been stolen. What a season… pic.twitter.com/6Y9cDPofbC

— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 7, 2026

I’ve to say, the @israelbobsled Team is just such a positive instance of how we push ahead in troublesome circumstances. Such a gross violation–suitcases, sneakers, gear, passports stolen, and the boys headed proper back to training today. I actually imagine this crew exemplifies… https://t.co/ctjwEXLk9r pic.twitter.com/YLI5VmlRau

— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 7, 2026

He wrote that “[w]hile training for the Olympics the @israelbobsled apartment was broken into during their training, thousands of dollars of stuff and passports were stolen,” including in exasperation, “What a season…”

Then in another post, Edelman assured followers that they’re undeterred by this disturbing setback, and their first intuition was not to roll up in a ball and have a pity occasion, but to “return to training” and forging forward with competing. To him, it is completely “exemplifies the Israeli Spirit”:

I’ve to say, the @israelbobsled Team is just such a positive instance of how we push ahead in troublesome circumstances. Such a gross violation–suitcases, sneakers, gear, passports stolen, and the boys headed proper back to training today. I actually imagine this crew exemplifies the Israeli Spirit.

Here’s more on the incident, which neither Edelman nor his teammates witnessed happen:

…Edelman told AP that crew coach Itamar Shprinz was there at the time. However, it wasn’t made clear whether or not he witnessed the theft.

Now, when can people tune in to cheer them on?

Edelman’s crew is set to compete in the 2m Bobsled competitors starting on Feb. 16-17, and then the “premier event,” as he described the 4m, on the Twenty first-Twenty second, the athlete also shared on X.

We are overseas training onerous. In great spirits.
2m competitors on the 16/17
4m, our premier event, the 21/22.

— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 7, 2026

Read More: This Day in 1972: The Massacre at the Munich Olympics

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They are in great spirits. This is how issues ought to be. Despite the heinous historic be aware of the 1972 Israeli crew being taken hostage it is not even the tiniest of impediments in these males’s minds. At this time, we do not know if the break-in and theft was associated to them being from Israel, though it comes to thoughts with rampant antisemitism in Europe. Regardless, we’re seeing in real time how champions act, whether or not they win a medal or not.

Meanwhile, take a look at these wonderful sled designs:

Shul Runnings.

The Israeli Bobsled groups sleds are so f*cking rad.

Love this for Israel 😂 pic.twitter.com/dwnEwEqKKl

— Kosher (@koshercockney) February 7, 2026

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