Israeli Olympic officials have disqualified their own bobsleigh team from participating in the final day of competition at the Milan 2026 Winter Olympics after one of its athletes falsely claimed illness in an attempt to let his Druze teammate from the reserve compete in his stead.
According to a statement from the Olympic Committee of Israel, the Israeli bobsleigh delegation – which competed in the first two runs of the event on Saturday with a team consisting of AJ Edelman, Menachem Chen, Uri Zisman and Omer Katz – tried to replace one of its team members with Druze athlete Ward Fawarseh for Sunday’s four-man bobsleigh event.
Fawarseh, if allowed to compete, would have become Israel’s first-ever Druze Olympian, but as he accompanied the Israeli delegation officially as an alternate, he could not compete unless another member of the team was unwell.
“The bobsleigh team asked to include Ward, the substitute, in the competition. According to the rules, this is only permitted if one of the athletes is injured or ill,” the Olympic Committee of Israel said in a statement to The Times of Israel. “In order to make this possible, one of the team members – encouraged by his teammates – declared that he was unwell. He even went for a medical examination and signed an affidavit so that the Olympic Committee could request approval for a substitution.”
The OCI said that the team’s behaviour was “improper” and “goes against fair and sportsmanlike conduct.” It added that Zisman, the team member who requested the substitution, “admitted to the head of the delegation that he had acted improperly,” which prompted the decision by the OCI to bar the bobsleigh team from participating in Sunday’s event.
A statement by OCI that was cited by Israeli national broadcaster Kan News added: “The Olympic Committee of Israel views any deviation from principles of fair play with great severity and cannot accept conduct that is unbecoming."
In a statement shared on Instagram on Sunday, Israeli bobsleigh pilot Edelman wrote that since the team was not in a competitive position going into the final, “it was more important to us that our alternate could have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.”
He admitted, however, that “the circumstances under which we made the substitution did not meet the high bar that allows a team to make a lineup change, and we withdrew from our final run.”
“While we are sorry that this will not end for all of us in the way that we had hoped, we are proud of the history we made representing Israel and setting the table for further Israeli representation in the sport for years to come,” the statement said.
The team, which made history as Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsleigh team, was in 24th place out of 27 competitors following its first two runs on Saturday, after three sleds crashed during the second run. Only the top 20 sleds qualify for the fourth and final heat.
The delegation has been under scrutiny during its time at the Milan Cortina Games, largely due to Edelman’s outspoken presence on social media. A Swiss commentator sparked controversy last week after he spoke over the Israeli team’s entire run in the two-man bobsleigh event with commentary accusing Edelman of “supporting genocide” and questioning if he should be allowed to compete given his Zionist position.
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