Several Jewish Athletes Medal at Winter Olympics

Less than two years removed from their impressive showing in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, a contingent of Israeli and Jewish American athletes vied for Olympic glory at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games earlier this month. From figure skating and speed skating to bobsled and hockey, the next chapter of Jewish sports history unfolded while the whole world was watching. Some of the magical performances on northern Italy’s frozen tundra involved the following gifted and supremely driven athletes.

Competing in its ninth Winter Games, Israel sent a nine-athlete contingent to Italy, its second-largest ever delegation at the Winter Games. But for the first time ever, Israel competed in bobsled as the duo of pilot A.J. Edelman and brakeman Menachem Chen participated in the two-man competition at the Cortina Sliding Center on Feb. 17. Considering that Edelman and Chen had no serious designs on medaling, the bobsledders were not the least bit disheartened that they finished in 26th and last place. They were just overjoyed to be donning the blue and white in a sport that is traditionally associated with more cold-weather nations.

“What we accomplished today, some kid is going to see in 10, 15, 20 years, and he’s going to be inspired by that to do his own journey,” Edelman told Israel’s Sport5 channel in an interview shortly after the race concluded. “People might not realize how amazing this accomplishment is for this country.”

Unfortunately, several days later, the Israeli Olympic Committee barred Edelman’s four-man team from racing in the competition’s final run because it did not approve of how the team wanted to change its lineup and permit an alternate member to participate.

Though goaltender Kayle Osborne did not see any time in the crease during the Milano Cortina Winter Games, she still capped off her Olympic debut by taking home a silver medal as Team Canada advanced to the gold-medal match against the ultimately victorious United States squad. The 23-year-old Ontario native serves as the goalie for the New York Sirens of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and could certainly be eligible for future Olympic Games. During her amateur career, Osborne had a phenomenal run at Colgate University, where she was a finalist for the NCAA’s Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year honor.

Mariia Seniuk, a 20-year-old Russian-Israeli figure skater just off her fourth straight Israeli national championship in singles skating, made her Olympic debut. Initially, everything went swimmingly as Seniuk delivered a clean performance in the short program, during which she nailed every one of her planned elements. By finishing 22nd overall, Seniuk earned a spot in the free skate event. Though Seniuk fell while attempting to land the triple loop in the follow-up event, resulting in a major point deduction, she was gracious enough to acknowledge the crowd on hand. “I’m very, very grateful to everyone, and especially to the people who were holding the [Israeli] flag,” she said in her post-event interview.

After recently declaring this Olympics would be his final speedskating competition, four-time Olympian Emery Lehman snagged a silver medal in the men’s team pursuit on Feb. 15. The 29-year-old Chicago native, whose mother Marcia Lehman is a former executive at Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership and at the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Israel, was part of a three-man team that finished 4.51 seconds behind the underdog host Italian team. A sport that he took up as a 9-year-old to brush up his hockey skills has now delivered him two Olympic medals, his first being a bronze during the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. “Eight years ago, none of us had skated a team pursuit together,” Lehman told NBC after the race, according to NBC. “Now, to be finishing off with two Olympic medals, I’m pretty proud of it.”

Jared Firestone —aka “The Jewish Jet”— placed No. 22 out of 24 in the men’s skeleton competition, edging out Canada and Japan in his heat. However, that Firestone, a Tulane-educated attorney, even participated in this year’s Olympics is borderline miraculous. In 2022, Firestone had just missed out on qualifying to represent Israel in the Beijing Games. Shortly thereafter, a nasty bicep injury at the gym shelved him for six months, during which time he harbored serious doubts as to whether he would ever return to the skeleton track. Yet, once the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel ensued, Firestone hardened his resolve to represent the blue and white on the Olympic stage. After a few arduous years of training and rehab, Firestone this past January snagged one of the final skeleton spots in the Milano Cortina Games.

For many Americans, the cornerstone moment of the 2026 Winter Games will be Team USA men’s hockey capturing its first gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” team shocked the world during the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. It will also forever be intertwined with Jewish sports history.

Several days after his older brother, Quinn, potted the overtime game-winner against Sweden in the quarterfinals, New Jersey Devils All-Star center Jack Hughes, who had a bar mitzvah and celebrated Passover growing up, ended the 46-year drought for America by firing the puck past Canada goalie Jordan Binnington 1:41 into overtime to give the U.S. a 2-1 win in the gold medal game.

“This is all about our country right now. I love the USA,” an exuberant Jack Hughes, who also tallied a pair of goals against Slovakia in the semifinals, told NBC after his game-sealing strike. “I love my teammates.”

Jack and Quinn’s mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, a proud member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, represented the U.S. women’s hockey team during the 1992 Women’s World Championships and was one of the coaches of this year’s gold-medal-winning women’s team in Italy.