Over the summer I had the unique pleasure of spending time with MIT grad, bodybuilding aficionado, Oracle employee and now 2018 Olympic hopeful, Adam Jeremy Edelman, or AJ, to those who know him more intimately. I first met AJ eight years ago at a mutual friends' Bar Mitzvah (AJ and I both grew up modern orthodox) at the time he was a stocky, Kippa clad young man talking of his aspirations of playing collegiate hockey.
When my parents told me we were having AJ over for holiday lunch, I half-expected the same goofy 15-year-old to walk through our door. To my surprise, AJ, who was now 23, could now barely fit his broad shoulders through our doorway. At lunch, he meticulously measured portion size: 300 grams of protein, 150 carbs and 100 grams of fat, no more no less. AJ's dreams had grown with him, from the small stage of the MIT hockey rink (he made the team by the way) to the greatest arena for human athleticism, the Olympics. AJ has been generous enough to share with us a brief interview about his journey to ride skeleton for Israel in his pursuit of Olympic glory.
Q: AJ would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
A: I'm 24 years old, a modern Orthodox Jew. I represent Israel as a National Skeleton Athlete competing in international competition in the hopes of qualifying Israel for a spot in the 2018 Olympics, and in so doing, inspire other Jews to pursue athletic excellence through sport.
Q: Do you mind giving us a brief background on the sport of skeleton? And, is it dangerous?
A: Skeleton is often described as 'head-first luge'. I describe it as a 120ft sprint followed by sliding down a bobsled track on a lunch-tray on my stomach. We reach speeds in the high-80s mph range, and race against the clock. Skeleton can be dangerous and painful—as a beginner you hit wall there is to hit, which at high speed is either like being dragged across or slammed into concrete. I wear no pads and have no brakes, and so the learning curve is a difficult and painful one. After my first week in Calgary my hips got so inflamed and the pain so severe I couldn’t walk and a doctor warned me that I could be causing damage to a nerve in my leg. Nevertheless I still needed to compete in the race, so I did so, and that’s just how life goes in Skeleton.
Q: I know you've already competed in some races, what has that been like? Have you been successful?
A: I competed in four races in my first season, 2014/15. From my viewpoint, they were successful, as each showed drastic improvement. Representing Israel, wearing the white and blue, acting as an ambassador to my people, community, and homeland is the greatest honor and pleasure I have ever experienced. Combine that with the rush of speeding along an ice track an inch above the ice, and it makes for a terrific, albeit sometimes nervous experience. I finished the season 91st in the world rankings. This season my goal is to make it into the 70s. It's a longer-term goal, and patience is a virtue. The 2016/17 and 17/18 goal is sub-60 in the world rankings to get Israel a World Cup Berth.
Q: What inspired you to pursue the Olympics?
A: What inspired me were two motivations: 1) I always want to be the best at one thing that I am pursuing, and 2) I had a profound sense of responsibility with the gift I had been given. In elementary school I went through a few years of bullying, and it really sparked this "I will become the best at something" mentality. So thereafter I was always chasing some form of 'greatness'. In terms of responsibility, the Jewish world doesn't produce as many high-performance athletes as it should, and very few of my peers were ever encouraged to pursue athletic excellence. Yet Jewish athletes act as ambassadors of their people, community, and homeland and we are missing a powerful opportunity if we are underrepresented in sport. I realized at one point that I had a unique gift that I didn't want to waste, and could use it to inspire other Jews to follow their own athletic dreams. So I thought 'what better a way to not only reach the pinnacle of sport, but also to inspire Jews than getting Israel to a Winter Olympics in a sliding sport?'
Q: What’s one of the biggest difficulties you face in the sport?
A: Logistics and funding are always a concern for almost all the athletes. I am self funded—Israel does not fund sliding sports, and so the costs of my season are borne solely by myself. This season it will cost about $40,000. Logistics are a major problem as well. I fund my season through my salary from my full time job, as a product manager at Oracle. But I will be required to tour Europe and Canada this season for over 5 months. Holding a full time job and training as well is a difficult task, but one that I have made work. Nevertheless because I have a responsibility to my employer, I will place my jobs performance as a priority and that many times means sacrificing some training time or being in locations which might otherwise benefit me.
Q: Is the Olympics then the goal by which you'd see yourself as successful?"
A: There is an entire community of skeleton and bobsled athletes who are training their hearts out, putting in the extra mile or 3 every day to make that dream a reality. For me too it is a dream, but it is not how I measure success. I measure success by how much impact I have as an ambassador of our people and community, whether it is positively representing Zionism or inspiring Jews themselves -- my role is as an ambassador, and I judge my success by how well I perform in that role. Already I have been able to meet Jews who have told me that they are now inspired to go pick up a sport they gave up on, and have also been able to talk to many other athletes about Judaism, Halacha, and the issues that Israel faces. Those interactions mean more to me than any race could.
Q: What have you been doing to train for this event?
A: My training varies from offseason and on-season. The best way to become a better skeleton athlete is by practicing on a skeleton track -- actually taking practice runs. So in the on-season (Mid-October until March) I took as many runs as I could last season. At the same time I was also in the gym, making sure I maintained my body composition and developed greater explosive strength through Olympic lifting such as cleans and snatches. There's also opportunities to practice the sprinting portion of our run in the ice house in Calgary, which is a sheet of ice simulating that first 40 meters we sprint before loading into the sled. In the off-season things get intense from a physical improvement perspective for me. I am not genetically gifted physique-wise. As you mentioned, I was previously out of shape and nowhere near where I am today. Over the past 6 years I have learned nutrition and training techniques that I put into practice today. My diet is structured, and so is my training regimen. I see a specialized sprinting coach, and travel 60 miles north to see a world-class Olympic lifting coach. There are a lot of explosive Olympic lifts I do which help with power generation in that 40m sprint at the beginning of my run. That sprint, called the push, is over 1/3 of my performance, though it only accounts for at most 1/10th the total time on the clock.
Q: As a modern orthodox Jew, what does it mean to you to represent Israel on a national scale?
A: Representing Israel internationally means everything to me. If I couldn't wear the white and blue I wouldn't compete. I changed sports precisely because when I stepped on that bodybuilding stage in 2014, there was no way of really showcasing Judaism or Israel. Nationality isn't a factor in bodybuilding for the most part. Acting as an ambassador is what keeps me motivated and energized. Nothing can replace the feeling of hearing 'the track is clear for Israel', or seeing ISR on the time sheet.
Q: How can we get involved and help?
First and foremost -- spread the word. My success is defined by how many people this journey can impact, so simply sharing the page and press is of importance. Secondly, skeleton as I mentioned is a very expensive sport, and all of my costs are borne by myself, as I am self funded. This year I have reached out to the general public for donations and sponsorships to help ease the financial burden. Donations are tax deductible, made out to a US 501(c)(3) foundation. Instructions are on my site. If you know anyone who'd like to sponsor, or can donate yourself, even $1, it'd mean a lot, to keep me motivated as well as making it easier to try and achieve what I want to achieve. Lastly, follow the journey--sign up for the mailing list on IsraelSkeleton.com or follow the Instagram and Facebook pages. I will be blogging on the website and also sharing 1 minute daily recaps of training on Snapchat.
Here are AJ's social media accounts:
Snapchat: hgeek23
Site: israelskeleton.com
Donations: IsraelSkeleton.com/sponsor
Twitter/IG/Kik: IsraelSkeleton
Facebook
