1. Biography

2. Sports career
     Hockey    Bodybuilding    Olympic sliding sports 

3. Olympic qualification

4. Athlete safety

5. Helmet art censorship

6. References

7. External links

After initially being told that he "lacked the skills necessary to become a competitive skeleton athlete," Edelman pursued the sport, eventually qualifying for the Olympics and becoming Israel's most decorated slider. Edelman holds Israeli track records on almost every track he has raced on, and has competed in two World Championships for Israel. He has won two international medals in competition, the most of Israeli sliding sport athletes. After a controversial helmet disqualification at the PyeongChang Olympics, Edelman took a hiatus from skeleton and in 2019 began training in bobsled.

An avid Zionist, AJ's mantra is לעצמי, לעמי, לארצי (for myself, for my people, for my country.)

Edelman is currently head of development and programming for the Israel Bobsled and Skeleton team.

Biography

Edelman, Modern-Orthodox Jew, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[4]

He was raised in a Zionist, Modern Orthodox home by parents Cheryl (a lawyer) and Elazer Edelman (a biomedical engineer, physician, professor, and inventor).^[5] He is the middle of three boys. His elder^[6] brother is comedian and television writer Alex Edelman, and his younger brother is Austin, also an MIT graduate.^[7]

He attended a Jewish day school, Maimonides School. He went to Israel in 2006 with a program similar to Birthright.^[5] He spent a year prior to enrolling at MIT in Beit Shemesh, Israel, studying at Lev Hatorah yeshiva.^[5][8]

Edelman graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (class of 2014, Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in management applications).^[9][10]

After graduating from MIT, Edelman was hired by Oracle and worked as a product manager, at their headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, until September 2015 when he devoted himself to training for the Olympics and moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.^[9][11][12] In May 2016, he became an Israeli citizen, and he is now a dual American-Israeli citizen.^[5][7][8]

Edelman is nicknamed the "Hebrew Hammer", a reference to the title character in the 2003 American comedy film The Hebrew Hammer.^[10]

Sports career

Hockey

Edelman's first sport was ice hockey, which he began playing at age three, as a goaltender.^[9][5] He continued to play hockey through high school for the Brookline Warriors hockey team, at one point turning down opportunities to play at prep schools and remaining at his Jewish day school, Maimonides.^[13][14]

Edelman continued to play as a goaltender at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the first Sabbath-observant player in the team's history.^[9][10] He helped the MIT Engineers win two divisional championships in the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA) Division II league.

Bodybuilding

Edelman competed as a drug-free bodybuilder for a year, placing in two categories at the 2014 Annapolis Drug Free Bodybuilding Championships in Annapolis, Maryland.^[9][14]

Olympic sliding sports

With an eye on making aliyah (immigration to Israel), Edelman focused his efforts on accomplishing something in the realm of Israeli sports with meaningful inspirational potential, with a goal of using his journey to launch a foundation to foster more sports participation in the Israeli and Jewish communities. After discovering skeleton he tried the sport for the first time at the Olympic facilities in Lake Placid, NY in March, 2014.^[28]

Edelman's initial scouting report noted that he was "not equipped for the sport" and would "get down the track but that'll be the most of it."^[15] Edelman had issues balancing on the sled due to some scoliosis and lacked effective sprinting technique, two essential skills in skeleton.^[30][28] At the time Edelman had considered speedskating as an adoptive sport, with carryover skills from his hockey career, but upon hearing the bleak scouting report presented by coaches decided to dedicate 2,884 days (the amount of time until the 2022 Olympic Games) to proving the assessment incorrect, and becoming Israel's first sliding sport Olympian.^[16][28]

AJ completely self-funded for his Olympic cycle, as no national-level assistance was available. To do so, he spent the entirety of his salary and savings from his position at Oracle (where he had taken a position as Product Manager after graduating from MIT.)

AJ also received assistance from individual donors and family^[28]. Edelman was "privileged and humbled" to receive the sponsorship from [Http://www.ArielPA.nyc Ariel Property Advisers] and Triventures.^[17]

Edelman could not afford a traveling coach, and believed that if he spent ten-thousand hours on his goal he would achieve the proficiency he sought. "8 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for four years"^[28] would take Edelman to ten-thousand hours. To achieve this goal, and treating his mission as one of critical importance, Edelman trained non-stop. When not physically training, Edelman watched World Cup videos during his rest time to create neuropathways that would develop his driving skill.^[18] According to an interview with the Israeli state media channel GPO, Edelman would ensure to be at a skeleton track every Christmas and New-Years Day, explaining that "if you are not training on Christmas, your competitors will be... there is not a day that I went to sleep without doing something to better myself in my sport... I have a responsibility as a national athlete to not rest until I achieve a result for the state (Israel) that she can be proud of."^[19] Edelman trained for the Olympics without the benefit of a permanent coach, learning by osmosis and auto-didactic methodology.^[11]

To self-motivate, Edelman would watch footage of the Israeli delegation at the Sochi Olympics, and inspirational commercials before and after his video review sessions.

Because Israel does not have appropriate facilities and weather, Edelman mostly trained abroad,though he spent four months a year between seasons in Israel performing physical training in the gym at the Zinman College of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the Wingate Institute, in Netanya, Israel.^[1][5]

Edelman's first race was in November, 2014's Park City, Utah North American Cup. At the race Edelman finished 18.64 seconds behind the race winner, and overheard someone mention that he would likely retire in 2 years. Hearing this, Edelman rededicated his efforts towards making the 2018 Olympics, while still working at Oracle. Edelman took 2-3 times the average training volume of a skeleton athlete.^[30] After the 2016 World Championships Edelman was ranked 66th in the world^[20] and was advised by three-time Olympic skeleton athlete and then-Japanese-coach Kazuhiro Koshi that he had a lot of potential, but could not do the sport "half-half".^[15] However, as a result of Edelman's intensive training regimen and constant pursuit, Edelman suffered mental burnout shortly thereafter and decided to quit the sport and return to Oracle.^[28] While writing up a letter of intent to do so Edelman watched an inspirational commercial by Proctor and Gamble titled "thank you moms" that was released prior to the Sochi Olympic Games. He also watched footage of the Israeli delegation at the Sochi Olympics, and decided to continue his Olympic pursuit. Edelman changed his letter to inform Oracle that he intended to train full-time, and so resigned his position as Product Manager.^[15][21]

Over the next two seasons he set Israeli track records at every track he competed at. Edelman is Israel's most decorated slider, winning 2 medals in international competition as well as all selection races.

He has won four Israeli National Titles.^[10]

In 2016 he came in 33rd in the Skeleton World Championships, and in 2017 he came in 35th.^[9] Edelman won two medals in international competition for Israel, both in Lake Placid in the 2018 North American Cup competitions.^[22]

Edelman's mission is Israel-centric, and every race prior to taking a run he repeats a mantra: "for myself, for my country, for my people".^[23]

Olympic qualification

Olympic qualification for skeleton is based on a quota system. For the PyeongChang Games, only twenty-nine athletes were in a position to qualify based on performance. Israel needed to have an athlete within the top seventeen nations in the IBSF world rankings, finishing ahead of more than 17 other nations. Quotas are assigned based on a points system. Athlete points are accrued based on results in international competition.

As there were multiple Israeli skeleton athletes competing on multiple circuits in the Olympic season, Edelman was given the option as national champion to choose the circuits he competed on. Though competing in easier races would have given him an easier path to re-securing his national title, it would not guarantee Israel an Olympic berth. Edelman noted that it was his "responsibility as national champion" to do what was right for the team's qualification chances, and so chose to race in harder races, attempting to hold back other nations from accruing points while another Israeli athlete accrued easier points on a lower level circuit.^[24] Because of this strategy, Edelman headed into the final weekend of the season "not in a position to qualify" and not "Israel's top ranked athlete." ^[24] In order to qualify, Edelman needed to pull two medal-results in the final two races, equal to Israel's best ever international sliding sport results. Edelman did so and earned Israel an Olympic berth.

He competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. A total of 30 athletes participated.^[11] He was eliminated in the third round, finishing the run in 28th place with a time of 52.35 seconds, 2.17 seconds slower than leader Yun Sungbin of South Korea.^[25]

Athlete safety

In 2014 Edelman, understanding the potential dangers for brain-health involved in sliding sports, pledged to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Institute at Boston University, and wore an accelerometer on his helmet to measure the instantaneous acceleration forces on the head in high-g skeleton turns.^[26] After witnessing another athlete suffer a concussion during the Olympic qualification season, Edelman designed a "system" to minimize acute head-impacts with the ice, that included a sled that measured the full length prescribed by rules, and a helmet that rested upon the sled. The system "worked. Not only did it work, it worked incredibly well," Edelman described.^[27] Edelman's helmet and sled were ruled legal in two separate international competitions, and were deemed to be fully compliant with the rules on shape and sizing. Edelman has described the system, which "held the promise to do so much good for myself and others" as one of his "proudest achievements."^[27] Because the new system required drastically altering almost all components of his sliding (including weight distribution and position on the sled,) Edelman faced significant risk to his results in implementing it during the Olympic season, as he would need to learn to adapt to a new setup in very short order.

Eight days prior to the Olympic competition, Edelman briefed the materials control and jury members on the system. Edelman asked for a quick ruling on the admissibility of the system in the race, as if it was for any reason disqualified drastic changes would need to be made to his sliding. He was given a thumbs-up on the helmet by the materials control staff during training, and in all training sessions until the day prior to competition slid with it. Edelman was "putting in a really good showing" and exceeding his expectations in the training sessions. However, 16 hours before the Olympic competition, a 3-member jury panel disqualified Edelman's helmet.^[28][27] According to Edelman, the reasoning "shifted multiple times, with no consistency...ultimately, however, there was nothing I could do."^[27] Although the jury had the ability to consider ruling on the helmet for eight days, they waited until 16 hours prior to the competition, when no chance for rebuttal would be possible.^[29]

Edelman was later informed that it was a skeleton athlete who launched an intentionally misleading protest to the jury for the purposes of bettering his own results by having Edelman's helmet disqualified. Edelman was told that the athlete or his coach insinuated that prior rulings legalizing the helmet were due to Israel being "well connected in the sport," and so the jury should disqualify the helmet on principle to show its independence.^[30]

Having to suddenly reposition himself to accommodate for a different equipment setup, Edelman was no longer able to center himself effectively on his sled, and in high g-force corners his now-exposed jawline would violently and painfully hit the elongated sled. Edelman's training results went from better than expected to last place, and experienced an intense bout of "emotional turmoil and confusion," as he feared putting in a performance that didn't reflect the elite level that Israel had attained in the sport in such a short while, and believing that Israel was being deliberately targeted without proper due process.

The following day Edelman raced with his old helmet and knocked off the time he had lost in the previous training, finishing in 28th place. This is why Edelman "pumped my arms in elation" after crossing the finish line. Quickly overcoming the challenge of the prior 16 hours to put in a result "worthy of the responsibility Israel had given [him]" was a "pivotal moment of personal growth," and an accomplishment he was most proud of.^[27] Edelman has continued to promote safer sliding conditions for skeleton athletes and proposed adoption of his sliding system to the IBSF, though the IBSF has refused to follow up on the incident or Edelman's concerns.^[26]

Edelman retired from skeleton after the incident, citing concern for skeleton athlete brain-health. He has acknowledged that the process felt targeted and the reasoning of Israel being "well-connected" played on classical anti-semitic tropes.^[26] He is currently head of development of team Israel.

Helmet art censorship

Edelman had hoped to compete with a helmet depicting the biblical figure Samson, and submitted his artwork for review to the IOC prior to the Olympics. The IOC agreed that the artwork was in compliance with uniform rules. Just prior to the opening of the Olympics, Nick Zaccardi, a reporter for NBC Olympics, contacted the IOC to ask why Edelman's helmet was not a violation of Olympic Rule 50 (against commercial advertisement, religious propaganda, political statements, and statements of motivation). Subsequently, the International Olympic Committee deemed it a display of religious propaganda, and demanded that Samson be covered over.^[31]

Edelman was also told to also remove mention of his parents from his helmet. Edelman described the unique challenge of finding spray paint and learning to spray-paint his own helmet at the Olympic Games.^[24]

Some have noted that the issues related to Edelman's helmet art were a double standard when compared to other athletes. Korean Goaltender Han Dohee's helmet featured a biblical verse and cited specifically to Isaiah.^[32] Yun Sungbin, a skeleton athlete representing Korea, competed with a sled design depicting a Korean flag superimposed on a "strength, power, protest" fist and a helmet depicting Iron-man (a commercial franchise.) Canadian bobsled athlete Heather Moyse competed with a message taped on her shoes thanking her parents.^[33]

References

External links

• [https://twitter.com/israelskeleton?lang=en AJ Edelman, Twitter]

• Dread Dragon Droom
• Dreaded cilia monster
• Dreaded spindly killer fish
• Drea de matteo
• Dread Empire's Fall
• Dread Empire’s Fall/The Praxis
• Dreadful Shadows
• Dreadful shadows
• Dreadful Skin
• Dreadgul Vikings (Heroscape)
• Dread Helm
• Drea Di Matteo
• Dread Jesus
• Dreadknight
• Dread Kong
• Dreadlock Holiday
• Dreadlocks Dread
• Dread Lord Pitr
• Dreadmon
• Dreadnaught (band)
• Dreadnaught (film)
• Dreadnaught (Star Wars)
• Dreadnaught USA
• Dread Necromancer
• Dread Necromancer (Dungeons & Dragons)