@hgeek23 how was your YT sukkos?
Was good! An update sent to supporters: to view it with pictures and the videos click here:
https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?e=27ea61de97&u=7b44e90712d09a1a9a5926ba8&id=d1fe1eb5cdOlympic Preseason
In brief:
Olympic Channel episode in November
Makeup of the extended team
Training month in Calgary
Core team and Alternates finalized
Final preseason stretch
Uniforms
Olympic season dates and calendar
How Olympic qualification works
How to get involved, we need your help!
To our very dear supporters,
It’s been an incredible couple of months since I was able to update you on the team. In that time we’ve made incredible strides.
Olympic Channel episode in November
In November, the Olympic Channel will debut a 10-15 minute episode on my journey and the team as part of a series called “Far From Home.” I am very excited that our team will reach a wider audience and hopefully provide a positive impression of our people and country to those who watch.
We still need significant help
The team is yet 20% funded and is in need of serious help. Please see the end of the email for details on getting involved.
The extended team
7 push athletes (athletes whose job it is to push the sled) came to Calgary to learn the sport and ultimately compete for 5 spots (3-4 primary athletes and 1-2 alternates,) on the team that will continue to compete this season. Each and every athlete had the power, speed, and work ethic that forms the solid base of an Olympic team. The athletes had diverse backgrounds both in sport and in background. The team has an Arab Druze, Orthodox Jews, secular Jews, and even a Chabad Jew. The team also has LGBTQ representation. It is truly a cross-section of Israeli society.
The athletes’ sporting-backgrounds are also diverse. The athletes came from weightlifting, decathlon, discus, crossfit, and rugby.
Training month in Calgary
We spent a month in Calgary training like bobsledders.
There are 3 primary functions of push athletes, 2 on-ice and 1 off-ice.
On-ice:
A. Push the sled in sync with the other push athletes at the start
B. Load into the sled in the correct sequence and stay in an aerodynamic formation with minimal shifting
Off-ice: equipment maintanence
The pushing portions can be trained through a combination of power training in the gym (moving a 500lb sled is no easy feat,) and time in the “ice house.”
Almost all the athletes had no experience seeing ice let alone running on ice, and so a lot of work was put in at the Calgary “ice house,” a refrigerated 100m section of track that mimics the bobsled start. It is a valuable resource and one of our primary expenses in the pre-season. Each hour in the push house costs $280, and our goal was to utilize it 16 times in the month. In a 4-man start, the athletes start from the back and both sides and push in a highly coordinated fashion. This requires immense amounts of practice to get the right technique.
Push practice 10/10/21
To help us learn, Olympic Champion and Jewish Sports Hall of Famer Steve Messler joined us in a couple of sessions to teach the push athletes the proper technique. It was an honor to receive his coaching and a terrific resource to have.
Loading into the sled is one of the hardest things to do in sport, I’m convinced of it. All 3 athletes must run full speed down the hill and then jump into the moving sled, cramming themselves together in the correct sequence and sit down in the proper order or the run can turn into a dangerous fiasco. We practiced the “load” hundreds of times a day on dry-land, and eventually in real-time as well when pushing. A well-executed load is critical to a good time and speed. It makes the difference sometimes between first and last place. Here too, Steve Messler provided excellent guidance.
You can see a slow-motion load (that was one of our first and needed definite improvement) here:
https://youtu.be/nyT2IqcHYaoSlow motion load not great
Core team finalized
As a team of 9 people (7 push athletes, a pilot, and a coach) is unsustainable and impossible to manage in an Olympic season (not to mention very expensive,) the team faced a preliminary cut of 2 athletes, decided in part by a selection “push competition” at the end of their time in Calgary. The two athletes who did not make the preliminary cut will remain a part of the BobTeam Israel family, in reserve in case of emergency. They are forever a key pillar of the team.
The members of the core team that will continue on to Whistler, in no particular order:
Amit Haas (weightlifting)
Roman Shargaev (decathlon)
Menachem Chen (discus athlete, an elite sport athlete-soldier in the IDF)
Ward Fawarseh (rugby)
Amitay Tzemach (crossfit)
AJ Edelman (pilot/captain)
Our two brothers in reserve for the future are Aaron Spiliopolous and Itamar Cohen. Both are terrific athletes and teammates and we look forward to seeing them again soon.
Final preseason stretch
The final stretch of the preseason is upcoming. On Sunday we drive to Whistler (2 hours north of Vancouver, BC, Canada) and begin on-ice sliding on October 20th. The Whistler track is one of, if not the most dangerous tracks on tour. It was built for speed, and is the fastest track on tour as well. The site of the 2010 Olympic Games, speeds approach 160km/h (100mph.) I know the track well from my skeleton days and look forward to dancing with its pressures once more. It seems fitting that it was the first track I slid in my 2018 Olympic season, and will be once more the first track we slide for this 2022 run. The track is one to certainly be respected and I am doing daily review of video and notes to be best prepared.
Uniforms
Our new uniforms arrived and we love them!
Olympic Season dates and calendar
The calendar of races can always be found on IBSF.org/Downloads under the “schedules” tab. We will compete primarily on the North American Cup (NAC) until January when we will move to Europe for races in the World Cup and Europa Cup. We will be competing in both disciplines, 2-man and 4-man.
NORTH AMERICA:
Whistler NAC: Races 1-3 in both disciplines, November 3-16, 2021
Park City NAC: Races 4-5 in both disciplines: November 17-30, 2021
Lake Placid NAC: Races 6-8 in both disciplines: December 1st-19th, 2021
EUROPE:
Winterberg (Germany)
--Training (Dec 23-January 3),
--Race 9 in both disciplines (World Cup), January 3-9th, 2022
--Race 10 in both disciplines (Europa Cup), January 9thth-15th, 2022
OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES, Beijing, China
2 man event: February 14-15th
4-man event: February 19-20th
Olympic Qualification
The Olympic qualification for bobsled is based on a quota system. 30 teams may compete in the 2-man competition and 28 may compete in the 4-man competition. While calculating who gets these spots is sometimes tricky, the simple way is to say that in order for Israel to qualify it must be in the top 19 nations in the 2-man discipline and in the top 17 nations in the 4-man discipline. Our best 7 races this season will count towards a points list which decides the rankings.
How to get involved—we need your help!
The season remains entirely self-funded through donations and sponsorship, without financial assistance from the Israeli government. Through generous donations we’ve thankfully been able to raise about 16% of the budget thus far. There is a lot of space on the sled left, and sleds function as exciting, fast-paced billboards.
Donations to BobTeam Edelman are 501c3 tax-deductible, processed by the Israeli Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, Inc. (EIN-45-2617767):
Checks may be made out to “Israeli Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, Inc.” and sent to 16420 N 92nd Street # 115, Scottsdale, AZ 85260. Please include “Edelman” in the memo line for it to be recognized as intended for our team.
Credit Card donations (automatic tax-receipt) can be made through the paypal giving fund at
https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/164739Please get in touch by responding to this email or messaging adam.edelman@olympian.org if you have any suggestions on sponsorships or partnership.
My gratitude
If you are reading this, you’re a member of the team’s family. Every supporter, message of encouragement, and prayer for our success is a source of strength for the team and helps us accomplish what we set out to accomplish. I am immensely grateful for your support.
Until next time,
Sincerely,
AJ Edelman