{"id":12401,"date":"2026-02-19T03:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/12401\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:13:13","slug":"swiss-tv-commentary-of-israeli-olympic-bobsled-run-fuels-fierce-reaction-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/12401\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss TV commentary of Israeli Olympic bobsled run fuels fierce reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Switzerland\u2019s public broadcaster has taken down a Winter Olympics<\/a> clip from its website after a journalist\u2019s commentary during an Israeli bobsled team\u2019s run was criticized.<\/p>\n

The commentator quoted and referred to past social media posts by bobsled pilot AJ Edelman<\/a> supporting the conflict in Gaza. Stefan Renna also cited International Olympic Committee eligibility rules<\/a> that require Russian athletes not to have publicly backed the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The two-minute commentary on Monday also noted a report commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council which concluded last year<\/a> that Israel committed genocide. Israel disputed those findings as \u201cdistorted and false.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, Switzerland\u2019s French-language public broadcaster RTS said its journalist was questioning the IOC policy in relation to the athlete\u2019s public comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, such information, while factual, is inappropriate within a sports commentary due to its length,\u201d RTS said. \u201cFor that reason, we removed the clip (Monday) night from our website.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shul Runnings<\/p>\n

Edelman responded to the commentary late Monday with a social media post<\/a> after placing 26th after two runs in the two-man bob competition. It was Israel\u2019s Olympic debut in the sport of the team branded \u201cShul Runnings\u201d in tribute to the Jamaica bobsled debut at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo coach with us. No big program. Just a dream, grit, and unyielding pride in who we represent,\u201d wrote the Boston-born athlete, who competed for Israel in skeleton at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking together towards an incredible goal and crushing it. Because that\u2019s what Israelis do,\u201d Edelman added. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to witness that and give any credence to the commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympics\u2019 local broadcaster<\/p>\n

RTS is the local public network for the IOC\u2019s home city Lausanne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a question for us at this stage,\u201d IOC spokesman Mark Adams said on Tuesday about the incident, directing questions to the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Renna also referred to the IOC disqualifying Ukraine skeleton racer<\/a> Vladyslav Heraskevych \u2014 for insisting on wearing a helmet with pictures of athletes and coaches killed during the Russian invasion \u2014 and noted there were examples of political issues at every Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

The commentary was described as \u201cbeyond disgusting\u201d by the United States ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Edelman was due back at the sliding track in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo later Tuesday to resume the two-man competition. He is also due to pilot a crew in the four-man competition starting on Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Switzerland\u2019s public broadcaster has taken down a Winter Olympics clip from its website after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1817,937,9126,9127,7863,2783,1731,9129,9130,9132,9131,9128,1821,4126,1824,307,7861,41,17,1823,1046],"class_list":{"0":"post-12401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","9":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","10":"tag-bobsled","11":"tag-bobsledding","12":"tag-gaza","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israel-olympic-team","16":"tag-journalism","17":"tag-language","18":"tag-mark-adams","19":"tag-mike-huckabee","20":"tag-olympic-games","21":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","22":"tag-send-to-apple-news","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-stefan-renna","25":"tag-swiss","26":"tag-switzerland","27":"tag-winter-olympic-games","28":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}