Israel’s first Olympic bobsleigh team has suffered a break-in at its training apartment in Italy.
During the alleged burglary last week a passport and “thousands of dollars” worth of belongings were stolen from a flat being used by the team competing at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
It has become the latest obstacle for the Winter Olympians.
Speaking to the JC on Thursday, team pilot AJ Edelman signalled that the squad could not compete without passports, and they were being assisted by Israeli and Italian authorities.
Israeli media has since reported that teammate Ward Fawarsy has been issued with a temporary passport allowing him to travel from the training camp to the games.
In an interview with the JC, Edelman played down the incident, describing it as just “another thing” the team had to deal with and “will get through”.
He said the team shared “an amazing bond of trust” and represented the Israeli spirit of being “victors and never victims.”
Edelman, a former Olympic skeleton athlete who is now driving for the first bobsleigh team the Jewish State has sent to the games, said training continued despite police opening an investigation into the break-in.
The location of the flat has not been disclosed.
While training for the Olympics the @israelbobsled apartment was broken into during their training, thousands of dollars of stuff and passports were stolen. What a season... pic.twitter.com/6Y9cDPofbC
— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 7, 2026
In a post on X, Edelman said how the team handled the incident “is just such a fine example of how we push forward in difficult circumstances.”
Posting a photograph of the squad training, he wrote: “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.”
"We are abroad training hard. In great spirits,” he added.
Israel is competing in Olympic bobsleigh for the first time.
Edelman is driving both the two-man and four-man sleds. He is expected to be pushed by Menachem Chen in the two-man race, while Fawarseh and Omer Katz are listed alongside him for the four-man event.
Official bobsleigh training in Cortina d’Ampezzo is set to begin this Thursday.
Thank you for the messages of support. We are victors, never victims. Our journey is defined by moving forward, always. That's the Israeli Spirit. Lulu, the Shul Runnings team, and I proudly continue to train and look forward to laying down something epic at these Games. As… pic.twitter.com/Euguthp53k
— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 8, 2026
Edelman, who competed in the head-first skeleton sport at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to ever compete at a Winter Olympics.
Fawarseh, a rugby player from the town of Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, is likely to become the first Druze Olympian.
Israel, which has never won a Winter Olympics medal, has sent nine Olympians and one Paralympian to the Games this year.
Edelman assembled the team himself and secured sponsorship off the back of his skeleton career.
He told the JC that he hoped the squad’s unconventional Olympic journey would “change how Jews and Israelis view themselves in sport.”
“I was born to drive bobsled,” he said.
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