16 Jewish and Israeli athletes to watch in the 2026 Winter Olympics, from the ice rink to the alpine slopes

Some of the Jewish and Israeli 2026 Winter Olympians, from left: Noa Szollos, Quinn Hughes, A.J. Edelman, Attila Mihály Kertész and Mariia Seniuk. Photo by Getty Images

(JTA) — All eyes might be on Israel’s unlikely bobsled squad, making its first appearance at the Winter Olympics, but there are actually a slew of Jewish and Israeli athletes headed to Milan.

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics kick off on Feb. 6, followed by the Paralympics exactly one month later.

Jewish and Israeli athletes enjoyed historic success at the most recent Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024, with a combined 36 athletes taking home 31 total medals between the two competitions. Israel’s seven Olympic medals were the country’s most in a single tournament.

Now sports fans worldwide turn their attention to Italy, where Israel will send nine athletes, its second-largest delegation in its ninth Winter Olympics appearance. A number of Team USA stars also hail from Jewish backgrounds, including three members of the men’s ice hockey squad.

Here are some of the biggest Jewish names to watch when the Olympic torch is lit in Milan.

Is there a Jewish or Israeli Olympian we should keep an eye on? Shoot us a message at [email protected]!

A.J. Edelman and the Israeli bobsled team

For A.J. Edelman, the 2026 Games represent a culmination of a 12-year effort to build an Israeli bobsled program worthy of Olympic competition. In his words, this is Israel’s “Shul Runnings” moment — a nod to the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings” about the pathbreaking Jamaican bobsled team that made it to the Olympics in 1988.

Israel Bobsled Team is heading to the Olympics.
For Israel "impossible" is just something we do. Every day.
4390 days–12 years ago, a dream was born. A mission. Catapult Jewish and Israeli Winter Sport to a new level through the qualification of an Israeli Olympic Bobsled… pic.twitter.com/NoHkMjvo4o

— AJ Edelman, OLY (@realajedelman) January 22, 2026

Edelman, a Boston native (and younger brother of comedian Alex Edelman) who made aliyah in 2016, is the first Israeli athlete to qualify for the Olympics in two different sports, having competed in the 2018 Games in skeleton. (The sport is known as bobsleigh in international competitions.)

Edelman will be joined by Menachem Chen, Ward Fawarsy and Omer Katz (plus Uri Zisman as an alternate) as Israel makes its Olympic debut in bobsled. The team is notable for two reasons beyond its sport: Edelman believes he’s also the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Olympics, and Fawarsy is likely the first Druze competitor.

Jared Firestone, Israel’s “Jewish Jet”

Miami-born Jared Firestone will compete for Israel in the skeleton competition, making his Olympic debut at age 35. He discovered the sport as part of his recovery from a transient ischemic attack, also known as a “mini-stroke,” during his first semester of law school at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo school.

Firestone became the first Israeli to win gold in an Olympic-discipline sliding sport competition, at the North America Cup in Lake Placid. In 2025, he was the first Israeli finalist at the  International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Championships.

The Jewish day school alum writes on his website that “my lifelong dream has been to represent Israel at the Olympic Games,” fueled in part by his 2008 experience with March of the Living and 2012 Birthright trip to Israel. He and Edelman cofounded Advancing Jewish Athletics, a nonprofit organization that supports Jewish athletes.

Aerin Frankel, star goalie for Team USA

Boston Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel has made a name for herself as a star in the ascendant Professional Women’s Hockey League. But the 26-year-old turns it up another notch in international play.

Frankel was Team USA’s starting goalie for the Women’s World Championships from 2023 to 2025, leading the U.S. squad to gold medals in 2023 and 2025 and silver in 2024. She was also on the U.S. roster for its 2021 and 2022 silver medal runs. During the 2023 tournament, Frankel became the first U.S. women’s goaltender in 26 years to start five consecutive games at an Olympics or World Championship.

Known as the “Green Monster,” a nod to Fenway Park’s iconic left-field wall, Frankel makes her Olympic debut this year.

The Hughes brothers, and Boston’s other Jewish goaltender

On the men’s side, Team USA will feature a trio of Jewish ice hockey stars all making their Olympic debuts: brothers Quinn and Jack Hughes and Jeremy Swayman.

Quinn Hughes, 26, a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild, was the 2024 winner of the NHL’s James Norris Memorial Trophy for the league’s best defenseman. He was traded to the Wild (for Israeli-American Zeev Buium) after several seasons as the captain of the Vancouver Canucks. He has played for various U.S. teams dating back to 2015, highlighted by a gold medal at the  2017 World U18 Championships.

Middle brother Jack Hughes, 24, is a star center for the New Jersey Devils, where he plays alongside youngest brother Luke Hughes. Jack, the first overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, is a three-time All-Star and was named tournament MVP of the 2018 World U18 Championship. He and Quinn have played together on multiple U.S. teams. Their mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, was herself a hockey star and is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Swayman, 27, was a star at the University of Maine before joining the Boston Bruins in 2021. The Alaska native co-won the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2022-23 for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL and was named an All-Star in 2024. Swayman, whose father is Jewish, had a bar mitzvah as a teen.

Attila Mihály Kertész, Israel’s first Olympic cross-country skier

It’s fitting that Attila Mihály Kertész is a cross-country skier, given the circuitous route he took to his first Olympics.

The 37-year-old was born and raised in Hungary, lives in Thailand and works as a veterinarian. He didn’t begin training until 2018. And now, he’s Israel’s first Olympic cross-country skier.

Kertész, whose wife is Jewish, also endured a long path to Israeli citizenship, a process that was interrupted by COVID, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He and his family finally completed the process in the summer of 2024.

“It’s historic to be the first [Israeli] cross-country skier,” Kertész told the Times of Israel. “I thought, OK, this is something I can give back to my nation.”

Emery Lehman, U.S. speed skater

The elder statesman of the U.S. Jewish Olympic cohort, Chicago native Emery Lehman, 29, returns for his fourth straight Winter Olympics. He won a bronze medal in Beijing in 2022. He has also won several gold medals at international speed skating competitions.

Lehman, whose mother has previously worked for the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Israel, first began speed skating as a child to improve his ice hockey skills. He became a national champion at 13 years old and qualified for his first Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Games, at 17.

In Italy, Lehman will compete in the 1500-meter race and the team pursuit.

Kayle Osborne, Canadian ice hockey goaltender

New York Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne completes the quintet of Jewish ice hockey players headed to Milan.

The 23-year-old Ontario native almost played for Canada at the Maccabiah Games as a teenager before going on to a standout career as a goalie at Colgate University, where she was a finalist for the NCAA’s Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year honor.

She is making her Olympic debut.

Mariia Seniuk, Israeli figure skating champion

Mariia Seniuk, 20, is a Russian-Israeli figure skater fresh off her fourth consecutive Israeli national championship in singles skating.

Seniuk placed 16th overall at the 2025 World Championships in Boston to clinch an Olympic quota for Israel.

Noa and Barnabás Szőllős, Israel’s “ski siblings”

Alpine skiing siblings Noa and Barnabas Szőllős are returning for their second straight Winter Olympics. Noa, 22, became the first Israeli athlete to medal at a winter Olympic event when she won a silver and a bronze at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

Barnabás, 27, finished sixth in combined downhill in Beijing in 2022.

The third Szőllős sibling, Benjamin, also competes in alpine skiing for Israel. Their father, Peter, was a professional skier for their home country of Hungary, where the siblings still live, before becoming an Israeli citizen.