At the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, a strapping athlete participated while holding the Israeli flag and wearing a kippah. But it wasn’t just any kippah; it bore the name of the 11 victims of the 1972 Munich massacre, in which athletes from Israel’s Olympic delegation were held hostage and murdered by the terrorist group Black September.
The athlete is Jared Firestone. But you can call him the “Jewish Jet,” a nickname the 35-year-old earned, thanks to a lot of hard work and determination. And yes, he says that going on the March of the Living and watching Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” inspired him to become an Israeli Olympian, one of nine athletes representing Israel in Milan Cortina this year.
He’s the second athlete to represent Israel in the Olympics in skeleton, a sport that involves navigating an icy track on a sled. The first was Adam “A.J.” Edelman, the current pilot of Israel’s first Olympic bobsled team, known as Shul Runnings. Firestone and Edelman co-founded a nonprofit that advances Jewish athletes.
Like many athletes who end up sledding down that icy chute at record speeds, Firestone’s dream wasn’t always to compete in skeleton. The Hollywood, Florida, native and Jewish day school graduate started out as a track and field athlete at Tulane before attending law school at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law.
After he had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), a minor stroke, in 2013, Firestone realized he wanted more from life, and fell in love with skeleton, which requires great sprinting skills to achieve competitive speeds.
In a 2023 interview with Haaretz, Firestone conceded that participating in the sport is “probably not the best thing for your brain, even if you don’t have a serious injury.”
“If I weren’t representing Israel, I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “But this is something I’m willing to sacrifice to have Israel there, to have the Magen David on my helmet be seen at the competitions.”
Firestone, who became an Israeli citizen in 2019, still lives in Miami Beach, Florida, where he runs his own law practice. He trains mostly in the U.S., as there are no skeleton training facilities in Israel. While he didn’t qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, he medaled at the 2022–2023 IBSF North American Cup, earning gold, silver and bronze medals.
“Hearing the Ha’Tikvah [Israel’s national anthem] played was a true dream come true,” he shared on his website.
Firestone told the Times of Israel that after October 7, 2023, he felt particularly motivated to hold on to his Olympic dream, noting: “I think, what’s my unique contribution that only I can do to support Israel and support Jewish people, and give them some sense of pride and hope? That was to do skeleton.”
The slider discovered he had qualified for the Milan Cortina Olympics last month while in Lake Placid, New York, and he shared an overjoyed video on Instagram.
Firestone brought some good luck charms to Italy — a charm that wards off the evil eye with the word “trust” on it, a plush toy with a picture of his girlfriend, a Star of David necklace with the 12 Tribes of Israel, and not one, but two different copies of Tehillim (Psalms).
After 10 years of training, many injuries, financial setbacks, a passport kerfuffle that threatened to keep him away and some booing at the opening ceremony, Firestone will finally be sliding down that Olympic ice track on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 3:30 a.m. ET and Friday, Feb. 13, at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Whether or not he medals, many of those watching him will find lots to kvell about just by watching him slide speedily with that giant Star of David at the center of his helmet.
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