Wow: Israeli Bobsled Team Reports Robbery of 'Thousands of Dollars,' Passports at 2026 Winter Olympics

Imagine just how much excitement there is surrounding the Israeli Winter Olympics team at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, especially since they are making their bow in one sport they have never competed in at the Olympic Games, according to an AP report this week:

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

A handful of diverse athletes — a pole-vaulter, sprinter, shot-putter, rugby player, and former Olympian in skeleton — will compete as Israel’s first bobsled team during this year’s Milan Cortina Winter Games.[...]

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

They even coined a fun nickname for the team, Shul Runnings, paying tribute to "Cool Runnings" about the unlikely Jamaican bobsled team:

As for how Edelman describes his long journey to Italy?

He puts his own spin on the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings,” based somewhat on the Jamaican bobsled team’s Olympic team from 1988. Using the Yiddish word for synagogue, he says he is thinking of this one as “Shul Runnings.”

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Watch:

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

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

Once the team arrived early in Italy for the opening ceremony, well ahead of their debut competition next week, their plan was to wedge in some last-minute training. That was when things took an ominous turn. Writing Saturday on his X account, about the bobsledding team's apartment getting broken into and ransacked, including "thousands of dollars of stuff," including shoes and equipment, along with their passports, stolen. Edelman explained: 

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," adding in exasperation, "What a season..."

Then in another post, Edelman assured fans that they are undeterred by this disturbing setback, and their first instinct was not to roll up in a ball and have a pity party, but to "return to training" and forging ahead with competing. To him, it's perfectly "exemplifies the Israeli Spirit":

I have to say, the @israelbobsled Team is just such a fine example of how we push forward in difficult circumstances. Such a gross violation--suitcases, shoes, equipment, passports stolen, and the boys headed right back to training today. I really believe this team exemplifies the Israeli Spirit.

Here's more on the incident, which neither Edelman nor his teammates witnessed take place:

...Edelman told AP that team coach Itamar Shprinz was there at the time. However, it wasn’t made clear whether he witnessed the robbery.

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

Edelman’s team is set to compete in the 2m Bobsled competition beginning on Feb. 16-17, and then the "premier event," as he described the 4m, on the 21st-22nd, the athlete also shared on X.

We are abroad training hard. In great spirits.
2m competition 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 things should be. Despite the heinous historical note of the 1972 Israeli team being taken hostage it's not even the tiniest of impediments in these men's minds. At this time, we don't know if the break-in and theft was related to them being from Israel, though it comes to mind with rampant antisemitism in Europe. Regardless, we're seeing in real time how champions act, whether they win a medal or not.