Ten athletes make up the Israeli team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, running February 6 to 22 in Milan and Cortina, two Italian cities several hours apart.
Israelis are competing in figure skating, alpine and cross-country skiing, skeleton, and bobsled (or bobsleigh in Olympic parlance). None is expected to medal.
Not surprisingly for a country better known for desert sands and balmy beaches than the snow on Mount Hermon, many of the Israeli Winter Olympians come from and in some cases live and train in other countries. That was the case with Israel’s first Winter Olympian in 1994, Michael “Misha” Shmerkin, a native of the Soviet Union.
Making up half the 2026 team, the bobsled team represents a mix of Israeli society.
Nicknamed “Shul Runnings” after the similarly long-shot 1988 Jamaican bobsled team immortalized in the film “Cool Runnings,” the bobsled team gained entry in January after the United Kingdom took only one of its two allocated spots in the Games.
AJ Edelman, 34, a Boston native and brother of comedian Alex Edelman, made aliyah in 2016 and represented Israel in the skeleton in 2018 in South Korea. He built the bobsled team with three 25-year-olds, former discus thrower Menachem Chen, former sprinter Omer Katz and former pole vaulter Uri Zisman (listed as the alternate), and former rugby player Ward Fawarseh, 30, all Israeli natives.
Edelman and Chen will race the two-man sled. If Fawarseh races in the four-man sled, he’ll be Israel’s first Druze Olympic competitor.
The nonprofit Advancing Jewish Athletics, founded by Edelman and Jared Firestone, is running a tax-deductible fundraiser for the team, which also has its own merchandise store, a WhatsApp group and a Shiba Inu mascot named Lulu.
Florida native Firestone, 35, also will be racing down icy chutes in Cortina in Edelman’s former sport, the skeleton. Firestone will be Israel’s flag-bearer at the Cortina opening ceremony.
In Milan, 20-year-old figure skater Mariia Seniuk will be the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony. She’s the four-time-defending Israeli national champion. She and her family moved to Israel when she was 8. she was born in Moscow and now trains there.
Brother and sister Barnabas (Barni) and Noa Szollos are alpine skiers who also competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where Barni scored Israel’s best-ever skiing result and equaled its best finish in any Winter Olympic sport by coming in sixth in the alpine combined.
The 27-year-old will compete in the slalom, giant slalom, super-giant slalom and downhill in Milan; the alpine combined isn’t being run this year. His 23-year-old sister will hit the slopes for the slalom and giant slalom. Both live in Hungary and train in Austria. Their father, Peter, also skied for Israel.
Another Hungarian connection on the Israeli team is Attila Mihaly Kertesz, a 37-year-old veterinarian who lives in Thailand. The native of Hungary and Israel’s first Olympic cross-country skier gained citizenship in 2024 through his wife’s Jewish heritage.
JTA and The Times of Israel have more on the Israeli team.
Israel also will have one competitor in the Paralympics in March: skier Sheina Vaspi, 24, who became Israel’s first Winter Paralympian in 2022.
Israel had its best-ever Olympic showing in Paris in 2024, winning seven medals in the Summer Games and 24 in the Paralympics.
Israel’s 2026 Olympic Schedule
- February 7 — Men’s downhill skiing
- February 11 — Men’s super-giant slalom skiing
- February 12 — Men’s skeleton
- February 13 — Men’s skeleton; men’s 10K cross-country skiing
- February 14 — Men’s giant slalom skiing
- February 15 — Women’s giant slalom skiing
- February 16 — Two-man bobsled; men’s slalom skiing
- February 17 — Two-man bobsled; women’s figure skating short program
- February 18 — Women’s slalom skiing
- February 19 — Women’s figure skating free skate
- February 21 and 22 — Four-man bobsled
