Adam Edelman

Adam Jeremy Edelman, known as A.J., was born on March 14, 1991, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Brookline. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014 with a degree in mechanical engineering. During his time at MIT, he was a member of the men’s hockey team, notably the program’s first Sabbath-observant player, and contributed as a staff editorial columnist for The Tech newspaper. His Olympic journey gained recognition with MIT President Rafael Reif using it as a basis for his 2018 commencement address.

Edelman’s sports career began with ice hockey at age three, and he later competed as an NGA accredited bodybuilder, achieving a top-3 medal finish at the 2014 NGA Annapolis Bodybuilding Championships. He ventured into skeleton in March 2014, surprisingly teaching himself the sport primarily through YouTube videos due to lack of funds for a coach. Despite initial assessments that he would not be competitive, he set a goal to qualify for the Olympics. After resigning from his product manager position at Oracle in 2016 to train full-time, Edelman secured Israel’s first sliding sport Olympic berth by placing fifth in two North American Cup races.

He represented Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, finishing 28th in skeleton. Edelman, an eight-time Israeli National Champion across skeleton and bobsled, holds the record for Israel’s most decorated slider in these sports with four national titles and two international IBSF medals. Following his skeleton career, he attempted to qualify an Israeli bobsled team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics and, in 2023, made history by securing Israel’s first-ever sanctioned bobsled podium. Currently pursuing an MBA at Yale School of Management, he continues to train for the 2026 Olympic Games, driven by a desire to use his platform to promote Jewish and Israeli involvement in sports and champion social causes.