Overview
- The roster pulls from other sports, featuring pole vaulter Uri Zisman, sprinter Omer Katz, shot putter Menachem Chen, rugby player Ward Farwaseh, and former skeleton Olympian AJ Edelman, with CrossFit athlete Itamar Shprinz as coach.
- Most teammates had never been in a bobsled before this season after the original lineup was thinned by military drafts following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
- The team clinched its Olympic berth at Lake Placid last month, securing Israel’s first place in Olympic bobsleigh.
- Edelman is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to compete at a Winter Games, and Farwaseh is poised to become the first Druze Olympian.
- Facing boycotts and calls for neutral status, the team competes as Israel after the IOC said the legal criteria used for Russia do not apply here, and the delegation also includes Maria Seniuk, Noa and Barnabas Szollos, Atila Mihaly Kertesz, and Jared Firestone.