Israel’s four-man bobsleigh team sat in 24th place out of 27 after two runs in Cortina d’Ampezzo at the 2026 Winter Olympics. No medal was within reach, and the final heats offered no realistic shot at climbing the standings. For AJ Edelman, Menachem Chen, Uri Zisman, and Omer Katz, qualifying alone represented a historic first: Israel’s debut Olympic bobsleigh team. Their alternate, Ward Fawarseh, traveled with them. Had he raced, he would have become the first Druze athlete to represent Israel at the Olympics.
Olympic substitution rules are strict: an alternate steps in only for verified injury or illness. One athlete claimed illness, underwent a medical exam, and completed the paperwork to enable the change. It later came to light that the claim was false. The Olympic Committee of Israel then withdrew the substitution request and barred the team from the remaining runs. AJ Edelman stated publicly that the approach fell short of Olympic standards. That ended their competition.
The intent seems straightforward enough. With no competitive stakes left, the team wanted to give their alternate a moment on the Olympic stage. It was a chance with real historic weight for Fawarseh. The method crossed the line, and the authorities enforced the rules without hesitation.
Within hours, certain outlets and commentators in anti-Israel circles amplified the incident into something far larger, framing it as emblematic of dishonesty while downplaying the Israeli Olympic Committee’s swift self-correction and the team’s own withdrawal. The core facts remain modest: a last-place squad tried to create an opportunity for a teammate the wrong way. Officials intervened. The noise around it far outstrips the event itself.
So, just to summarize…. A Jewish Israeli who had already raced feigned illness to allow his nonJewish Druze teammate the opportunity to do so as well.
So much for “Jewish supremacy” and the lie of apartheid.