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  "path": "/2026/02/08/israeli-athletes-robbed-passports-stolen-winter-olympics-26776309/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-08T11:01:34.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Sport",
    "Winter Olympics",
    "Milan",
    "Italy",
    "social media",
    "Israel",
    "@israelbobsled",
    "pic.twitter.com/6Y9cDPofbC",
    "February 7, 2026",
    "Gaza",
    "JD Vance",
    "Vance, who has been strongly critical of Europe, drew jeers",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source",
    "@realajedelman"
  ],
  "textContent": "Israel has a team of 10 athletes set to compete at the Winter Olympics (Picture: X)\n\nAn Israeli bobsled pilot says the apartment that he and some fellow Olympians have been using while finishing their training for the Milan Cortina Winter Games was robbed Saturday.\n\nAmong the missing items were passports and ‘thousands of dollars’ worth of other sporting equipment.\n\nSome members of the team are yet to arrive in Italy and aren’t expected to leave their training base — the location of which the team did not disclose — until this coming week.\n\nAJ Edelman, a former Olympic skeleton athlete who is now the driver for the Israeli bobsled team, said in a series of social media posts that the squad continued training Saturday even after police opened an investigation.\n\nEdelman said the way in which the team handled the day ‘is just such a fine example of how we push forward in difficult circumstances,’.\n\nHe added on X: ‘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.’\n\nIsrael is competing in bobsled at the Olympics for the first time, qualifying for the games after Britain decided not to take one of its two allocated spots. Israel was next in line and accepted the offer to compete when the last Olympic slots opened.\n\nEdelman told AP he was in Italy, not at the site of the robbery. He said team coach Itamar Shprinz, an Israeli cross-fit athlete, was there.\n\n> 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\n>\n> — AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) February 7, 2026\n\nIsrael plans to compete at the Olympics in both two- and four-man, with Edelman driving both sleds. He’s expected to be pushed by Menachem Chen in the two-man race, with Ward Fawarseh and Omer Katz listed as the athletes joining him for four-man.\n\nOfficial bobsled training in Cortina d’Ampezzo begins on Thursday.\n\nEdelman, who raced in the head-first sliding sport of skeleton at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, is believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to ever compete in a Winter Games. Farwaseh will likely to be the first Druze Olympian.\n\nTheir Olympic participation comes at a time when Israel’s presence in international sports has been met with a backlash over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza.\n\nIsraeli athletes were booed at the opening ceremony in Milan (Picture: Getty)\n\nThe Games officially got underway on Friday evening amid obvious political tension during the opening ceremony.\n\nItalian President Sergio Mattarella formally declared the Games open at the main event in Milan’s San Siro stadium.\n\nUS Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were among the crowd in the iconic football stadium for the performance entitled ‘Armonia’ (Harmony) that lasted three and a half hours.\n\nVance, who has been strongly critical of Europe, drew jeers in the stadium when an image of him waving the US flag appeared on a big screen.\n\nThe announcement of the Israeli team prompted some booing over the loud soundtrack, but there were cheers in Cortina.\n\nComment now Comments  Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source ",
  "title": "Israeli athletes robbed and passports stolen at Winter Olympics"
}