Olympic team disqualified by their own country before competition at Winter Games

A country's Olympic Committee has spoken out about its reason for disqualifying its bobsleigh team from competing in the 2026 games a day before the race.

As the final day of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games draws to a close, some countries are coming away littered with gold, silver and bronze medals.

However, one country's bobsleigh team didn't even get a chance to compete for a podium spot in the final day of the games.

On February 11, a day before they were set to compete, Israel's bobsleigh team was disqualified by its own Olympic Committee.

The four-man team competed the day before being disqualified and that day, were made up of athletes AJ Edelman, Menachem Chen, Uri Zisman and Omer Katz.

However, yesterday, the team saw Ward Fawarseh replace Zisman.

Following the change in athlete, the Olympic Committee of Israel disqualified the team from competing in the final day, but why?

The team in training (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

In a statement to The Times of Israel, the Olympic Committee of Israel said the team 'asked to include Ward, the substitute, in the competition'.

The rules reportedly state it's 'only permitted' to swap out an athlete if another is 'injured or ill'.

The Olympic Committee of Israel continued: "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."

It explained this 'violat[ed] the standards expected of Olympic athletes and the core Olympic values,' as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

The committee said the team member later came forward and 'admitted' he'd 'acted improperly'.

The team weren't allowed to compete on the final day (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

"This forced the Olympic Committee of Israel to withdraw the request and disqualify the move," the statement says.

The committee resolved: "The decision to suspend the team was made with the agreement of the athletes themselves.

"The Israel Olympic Committee takes any deviation from the principles of fair play seriously and will not accept behavior that is unbecoming of Olympic standards. We strongly condemn such actions in every way."

LADbible Group has contacted the International Olympic Committee and The Olympic Committee of Israel for comment.

The bobsleigh race saw Switzerland come in at spot number three, with the United States bagging silver and Germany taking home gold.

Germany also took home gold in the two-woman final of the bobsleigh event and two-man competition too.