Few Olympic athletes are jubilant at coming in last place. But for Israel’s bobsleigh team, the Olympic dream was never about a medal — but about showing up, hitting the ice and waving the flag.

And their Olympic run isn’t over yet.

Israel’s two-man bobsleigh team, made up of pilot AJ Edelman and brakeman Menachem Chen, finished its third and final heat Tuesday evening in 26th and last place, with only the top 20 sleds competing in the fourth heat.

And they were overjoyed.

“What we accomplished today, some kid is going to see in 10, 15, 20 years, and he’s going to be inspired by that to do his own journey,” Edelman told Israel’s Sport5 channel in an interview shortly after finishing the race Tuesday night.

“We’re very proud, we’re moving forward to the four-man event,” the team’s pilot added. “Israel is in the Olympics, baby! We did something unbelievable in this sport, to do it by ourselves, piecing it together. People might not realize how amazing this accomplishment is for this country.”

The team was never seen as having any real shot at a medal, after just missing out on qualifying outright for the Games, and winning an Olympic spot thanks to reallocation.

But for the Israeli team, and Edelman in particular, the Cinderella run at making it to the Olympics at all was the culmination of eight years of hard work, crushing disappointments and refusing to ever give up.

Edelman........

© The Times of Israel