Israeli Olympic officials have disqualified Israel’s four-man bobsleigh team from finishing their event today, Times of Israel reported on Sunday.

The Olympic Committee of Israel told the publication that it has prevented the country’s four-man bobsleigh team from taking part in today’s competition after one athlete provided false information to officials to let teammate Ward Fawarseh compete in his place.

Per the report, Israel had raced on Saturday with Adam Edelman, Menachem Chen, Uri Zisman, and Omer Katz. Although the team was originally scheduled to compete this morning with Edelman, Chen, Fawarseh, and Katz, the disqualification has halted their participation.

Fawarseh would have become Israel’s first Druze Olympian had he competed, but he arrived at the Games as an alternate and was only permitted to race if another team member was unwell.

“The bobsleigh team asked to include Ward, the substitute, in the competition. According to the rules, this is only permitted if one of the athletes is injured or ill,” the Olympic Committee of Israel said, according to Times of Israel.

“In order to make this possible, one of the team members — encouraged by his teammates — declared that he was unwell. He even went for a medical examination and signed an affidavit so that the Olympic Committee could request approval for a substitution.”

After admitting that he had lied, the athlete told the head of the delegation that he “had acted improperly,” forcing the Olympic Committee to withdraw the request and disqualify the move, the OCI said.

The committee called the team’s actions “improper” and said they “go against fair and sportsmanlike conduct.”

After the first two runs on Saturday, Israel’s team was in 24th place out of 27, following crashes by three sleds during the second run.

Previous controversy

The team had made headlines earlier this week as well when a commentator on Swiss channel RTS said Adam Edelman’s supportive comments of Israel’s more-than-two-year bombardment of Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people and the destruction of most of the territory’s infrastructure, should have resulted in him being barred from the Olympics.

“Edelman, first appearance at an Olympic Games, who defines himself and I quote ‘as a Zionist to the core’,” remarked the commentator, Stefan Renna, as Edelman and teammate Chen began their two-man bobsleigh run on Monday.

The commentator went on to tell viewers that Edelman had posted on social media “in favour of the genocide in Gaza. I remind you that genocide is the term used by the United Nations commission of inquiry”.

Renna also commented that Edelman had “said the Israeli military intervention was, I quote, the most morally justified war in history”.

He suggested Edelman should have been barred from the Milan-Cortina Games on the same basis that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to allow Russian athletes to appear if they had made pro-war remarks regarding their country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Edelman was furious and hit back on his Instagram account.

“I am aware of the diatribe the commentator directed towards the Israeli bobsled team on the Swiss Olympic broadcast today,” he wrote.

“I can’t help but notice the contrast: Shul Runnings is a team of 6 proud Israelis who’ve made it to the Olympic stage,” he said in a reference to the Israeli team’s nickname, a play on the film “Cool Runnings” about the debut of the Jamaican bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

“No coach with us. No big program. Just a dream, grit and unyielding pride in who we represent. Working together towards such an incredible goal and crushing it. Because that’s what Israelis do. I don’t think it’s possible to witness that and give credence to this commentary.”

The Israeli embassy in Switzerland reacted robustly to the commentary.

“We are deeply appalled by the blatant abuse of a live Olympic broadcast by a Swiss RTS journalist,” the embassy posted on their X.

They demanded that action be taken against the journalist.

“@RadioTeleSuisse must publicly address this misconduct, issue a clear apology, and take decisive action against the journalist responsible.”

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said it was not for them to comment.

“In terms of specific comments by a commentator, that is a matter you have to refer to the broadcaster,” he said at the IOC daily briefing at the Winter Olympics.

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England routed Sri Lanka for 95 to give captain Harry Brook a perfect birthday present as they opened the T20 World Cup Super Eights phase with a resounding 51-run win in Kandy on Sunday.

After England were asked to bat first and scored what looked like a below-par 146-9, Jofra Archer and Will Jacks took five wickets during the six-over power play to leave Sri Lanka’s top order in tatters at 34-5.

“That’s a beautiful birthday present,” said Brook, who turned 27 on Sunday.

“I thought we played exceptionally there. To get over the line and bowl them out for less than 100 is an awesome effort.

“I didn’t think there were really any demons on the pitch. I think the spinners on both sides used the pace really well, and that’s what brought a lot of wickets.” It was England’s 12th win in a row against Sri Lanka and on a pitch that was sticky and slow after rain all week in Kandy.

The margin of victory gives them a healthy net run rate advantage in a Super Eights group that could be further affected by weather, after the New Zealand-Pakistan match was washed out on Saturday in Colombo.

“We’re buzzing with that,” said Jacks, who was named player of the match for the third time in five matches in the tournament.

“At the halfway stage, we were pleased to get up to 146, but obviously we knew we were going to have to bowl well and work hard.” The searing pace of Jofra Archer accounted for both openers, including the in-form Pathum Nissanka (9), who had scored a century and 62 in his last two knocks but failed to clear Jamie Overton at deep mid-wicket.

Archer finished with 2-20 and Jacks 3-22, the latter accounting for Kusal Mendis (4) and Pavan Rathnayake (0) in consecutive balls.

Dunith Wellalae staved off the hat-trick but lasted only 10 balls before also falling to Jacks, for 10.

Lone battle

Dasun Shanaka fought a lone battle, scoring 30 off 24 balls before falling to Adil Rashid.

The Sri Lanka captain took on the leg-spinner but Jacks took the catch and tossed the ball to Tom Banton before stepping over the boundary.

“It’s one bad game which is not affordable in a World Cup,” said Shanaka.

“But we need to bounce back in the next couple of games.” Sri Lanka earlier restricted England to 146-9 with left-arm spinner Wellalage taking 3-26.

Phil Salt scored 62 at the top of the order but Sri Lanka, who are missing three of their frontline bowlers, contained the rest of the England batting line-up with regular wickets.

Wellalage was introduced during the power play and trapped the out-of-form Jos Buttler (7) and Brook (14), both lbw, as England limped to 68-4 at the halfway mark.

Salt was caught in the deep off Wellalage after facing 40 deliveries with six fours and two sixes.

Jacks, with 21, was the only other England batsman to score more than 20.

Left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka took 2-25 while Maheesh Theekshana took 2-21 with his offspin.

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Sri Lanka on Sunday won the toss and chose to bowl against England in their Super Eight match of the ongoing T20 World Cup in Pallekele.

England, the two-time champions, have gone in with an unchanged team for the fourth match in a row, ESPNcricinfo reports.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka made two changes to their XI, with Dushmantha Chameera returning in place of Pramod Madushan and Kamil Mishara rejoining the team in place of Kusal Perrera.

“We’ve been chasing well in the past few occasions and happy to chase again,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Shanaka as saying at the toss. “The boys are very confident playing here.”

Ahead of the match, captain Harry Brook said on Saturday that England can adapt to whatever the weather throws at them, as rain threatened to disrupt their opening Super Eights match.

“I think you just have to prepare as if it is a T20,” Brook told reporters. “I think you can sometimes go down a bit of a rabbit hole thinking that you’re going to play a five-over game and then it ends up being a T20 and you kind of play it slightly differently.

Teams:

England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook (c), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Dilshan Madushanka

More to follow

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