Adam Jeremy "A. J." Edelman OLY (Hebrew: אדם ג'רמי אדלמן; born March 14, 1991) is an American-born Israeli sliding sports athlete. He is an eight-time Israeli National Champion in sliding sport (skeleton and Bobsleigh)[1] who competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[2] Edelman is the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Olympics, and the first Orthodox Jewish man to compete in either Olympic iteration.[3] In 2023, Edelman became the first ever Israeli to take a podium in a sanctioned Bobsled race and in March, 2024 became the first Israeli to secure the overall podium on the North American Cup.[4] Edelman is training for the 2026 Olympic Games.[5]
Edelman graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 with a degree in mechanical engineering.[10] He was a member of the MIT Men's hockey team and a staff editorial columnist for the MIT newspaper, The Tech.[10] MIT President Rafael Reif's 2018 commencement address used Edelman's Olympic journey as a basis of his message to the graduating class.[11]
Edelman is nicknamed the "Hebrew Hammer," a reference to the title character in the 2003 American comedy film The Hebrew Hammer.[10]
Edelman has said he is a supporter of anti-bullying and mental health initiatives, and that his motivation for continuing in sport is largely a desire "to use my Olympic journey as a platform to promote further Jewish and Israeli involvement in sport."[14][15] He was named a 2021 European Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Sports and Games category for his efforts of using his platform to campaign against bullying and increase LGBTQ participation in sport.[16]
Sports career
Hockey
Edelman's first sport was ice hockey, which he began playing at age three, as a goaltender.[17][7] He continued to play hockey through high school for the Brookline Warriors hockey team and at MIT, where he was the program's first ever sabbath observant player.[10] Edelman helped the MIT Engineers win two divisional championships[18] in the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA) Division II league.
Bodybuilding
Edelman competed as an NGA accredited bodybuilder,[19] placing in a top-3 medal finish at the 2014 NGA Annapolis Bodybuilding Championships.[20]
Olympic sliding sports
Skeleton
Edelman tried skeleton for the first time at the Olympic facilities in Lake Placid, NY in March 2014[15] where he was given an assessment that he would never be competitive.[13][21][22] The Israeli team was similarly told that Edelman would "get down the track but that’ll be the most of it."[23] Nevertheless, Edelman set out a goal of qualifying for the 2022 Olympics.[24][9]
Lacking funds, Edelman could not afford a coach and was self-taught.[25][26][27] He reinforced his learning of the sport by watching nearly 12 hours of YouTube video daily.[28][13][7][19][29]
In his first race at the 2014 North American Cup, Edelman finished 18.64 seconds behind the race winner,[30] and after hearing another athlete indicate that given his poor performance Edelman would quit within 2 years, decided to focus on making the 2018 Olympics, rather than 2022.[18] In the 2018 Olympic qualification season, Edelman had cut this deficit to 1.19 seconds, placing ninth.[31]
In 2016, he decided to quit the sport and return to work, but changed his mind at the last minute and decided to train full-time, resigning from his job as a product manager at Oracle.[32]
Edelman entered the final days of 2018 Olympic qualification outside of qualification position, needing two medal performances in the Lake Placid North American Cup races to jump up the ranking table. He secured Israel's first sliding sport Olympic berth by earning a fifth place medal in both races.[15][33][34]
Edelman competed in two World Championships for Israel,[17] and retired from skeleton as Israel's most decorated slider, winning four Israeli national titles and two medals in IBSF-sanctioned international competition, the most of any Israeli sliding sport athlete.[36][10][34][33]
Bobsled
Post-skeleton, Edelman unsuccessfully attempted to qualify an Israeli bobsled team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.[5][37][38]
In 2023, five of Edelman's teammates were drafted to serve in the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza War (2023-present). Edelman strung together a season by bringing in new athletes in each race for the IBSF North American Circuit, ultimately winning Israels first ever sanctioned Bobsleigh podium.[4][39]
