CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — AJ Edelman and Menachem Chen are in last place out of 26 sleds at the midway point of the Olympic two-man bobsled race at the Milan Cortina Games.
And they're thrilled.
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Israel's Adam Edelman, front, starts for a two man bobsled training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Israel's Adam Edelman, right, and Menachem Chen start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman, front, and Menachem Chen start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman salutes public at the end of a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman, left, and Menachem Chen celebrate at the end of a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel competed in Olympic bobsled for the first time on Monday, and for Edelman and Chen that was more than enough to celebrate. They had the slowest starts and slowest finishes in both of their two heats and finished nearly five seconds — a massive gap in sliding — behind leader Johannes Lochner of Germany. They also had absolutely no complaints afterward.
“We are victors,” Edelman said. “Not victims.”
Edelman — a Boston native who also made Israeli sports history when he became the country's first Olympic skeleton competitor at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games — has bucked long odds and paid big bills to make these quests happen.
Sliding isn't cheap and the pay isn't great even for the biggest names in the world. Edelman freely admits that he's not particularly fast, and the Israeli team doesn't have a full-time coach. The team had to sweat out just getting a berth in the Olympic field, then dealt with a robbery at the apartment they were using as a training base before coming to Italy.
Days like Monday make it all more than worthwhile, he said.
“I’ve been to the games before. It’s not the greatest thing in the world,” said Edelman, who jumped out of his sled in celebration Monday, more proof that the result was irrelevant from his perspective. "But it is the greatest thing in the world to see your country represented, and some kid’s going to see that, and they’re going to go, ‘You know what, I can start no worse than that guy, but I can do a lot better than that guy.' And he’s going to start his journey.
"What’s a better thing in the world to accomplish than that?”
Israel has 10 athletes at the Milan Cortina Olympics, six of them sliders. The country's participation comes at a time when Israel’s presence in international sports has been met with boycotts, bans and backlash over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 71,800 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, and devastated the strip.
Contending isn't a realistic expectation. Representing is the goal.
“I’m just here to make everybody watching proud, to represent not just Israel but all Jewish people around the world," Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone — an attorney in South Florida — said last week during that competition. "That’s what I’m here for. That’s my message.”
Edelman, believed to be the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Games, is leading a team that has a bunch of first-time sliders, after he helped recruit a rugby player and three track and field athletes to fill out the national team. Edelman and Chen will get one more run on Tuesday; they'll need what might be a mathematically impossible rally to get into the top 20 sleds and be assured of a fourth and final run of the two-man event.
Edelman will lead a team into the four-man event later this week as well. He said he thought about abandoning his plans to lead an Olympic bobsled team many times, before his mother talked him out of it.
“We always want to be the first but not the last,” Edelman said. “I was very sure that, if we didn’t get it done, there would never be an Israeli bobsled team in the Games, because no one was going to fight for that. Now we’ve set a precedent. Others can come after us."
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Israel's Adam Edelman, front, starts for a two man bobsled training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Israel's Adam Edelman, right, and Menachem Chen start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman, front, and Menachem Chen start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman salutes public at the end of a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Israel's Adam Edelman, left, and Menachem Chen celebrate at the end of a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
DALLAS (AP) — The bleak timeline for Luka Doncic's return from injury was already out there when the Los Angeles Lakers got word that Austin Reaves also wouldn't play again in the regular season.
LeBron James woke up from a nap to find out about the prognosis on Reaves' strained left oblique. He had gone to sleep knowing the outlook on a strained left hamstring for Doncic, the NBA scoring leader.
“It was a shot to the heart and to the chest and the main frame with Luka, and we got that news kind of quick,” James said after the Lakers' 134-128 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night. “And (Reaves), he's kind of dealing with the pain, we're saying, ‘OK, whatever the case may be.’
“I woke up from my nap yesterday and then saw that news, I was like ... (expletive),” James said, pausing for several seconds before punctuating his thought.
For now, the playoff-bound Lakers will lean on James as their primary scorer and floor leader, while keeping in mind the 41-year-old is wrapping up his record 23rd NBA season.
Sure enough, James had 30 points and 15 assists against the Mavericks, but did struggle in the fourth quarter after sparking a rally in the second. He was 2 of 7 from the field in the final 12 minutes, and missed both free throws when the deficit was eight with 3:50 remaining.
“I think we have to be mindful of that. I think that’s a valid question,” coach JJ Redick said before the game. “For all our guys, him included, we want to put them in positions to be successful. Certain guys are gonna be tasked with doing stuff they haven’t done a lot of this year.”
Doncic and Reaves, LA's No. 2 scorer, both were injured in a blowout loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday.
Of course, Doncic is the centerpiece of that conversation as an MVP candidate who will finish the season one game short of the 65 required to be eligible for that and other postseason awards.
“I just know that he’s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,” Redick said. “I talked to him Friday, I talked him again (Saturday), I talked with him again (Sunday) morning. He’s gonna go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it’s our job again to extend the season so that both those guys can get back.”
Redick spoke of point guard by committee, an approach made necessary by another absence in Marcus Smart, who has a right ankle injury. Redick included James' son, Bronny James, in that mix along with Luke Kennard, Nick Smith Jr. and the seldom-used Kobe Bufkin.
Kennard had his first career triple-double with 15 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and 11 assists, but had a rough shooting nigh against the Mavericks, going 5 of 17. Among the others mentioned by Redick, only Bronny James played more than five minutes, scoring five points in nine minutes.
“I think simplicity wins,” Redick said. “It’s nothing too crazy. But it’s just being really simple with the menu and hopefully over the next five games, we can really figure out what works for this group. And that’s obviously trial and error.”
James had a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a victory over Washington last week when Doncic was serving a one-game suspension for receiving his 16th technical foul this season.
The loss to Dallas dropped the Lakers into a third-place tie with Denver in the Western Conference. Fifth-place Houston could end up chasing home-court advantage in the first round as well, particularly with the Lakers so wounded.
Rui Hachimura scored 12 of his 21 points in the first quarter against the Mavericks, who built a 22-point lead before halftime and held on despite James' strong showing and 23 points from backup center Jaxson Hayes.
The Lakers shot 52% with 36 assists, two off their season high, but let the Mavs match that 52%. Dallas, one of the NBA's worst teams from 3-point range, made 14 of 32 (44%).
“We’ve got a week left of the regular season and then a week to prepare and we’ve gotta have the commitment to do it on both ends,” Redick said after the game. “That’s the reason that we’ve put ourselves in the position to be in the playoffs is because we became a really good offensive team and a really good defensive team. So it’s gotta be the commitment to both ends.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) shoots against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylin Williams (6) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James grimaces as he grabs the ball after a whistle during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick walks onto the court during a time out in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) drives against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell (25) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
Los Angeles Lakers forward/guard Luka Dončić (77) drives against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach JJ Redick reacts during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) drives the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
