Israel's First Winter Olympic Medalist?

Retrieved from http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=257516

Fresh off his medal-winning performance at the Americas Cup in December he will represent Israel at the World Championships in February.

 

Meet Bradley Chalupski, a native of New Jersey, currently living in Lake Placid, New York, where he trains full time as a Skeleton athlete for team Israel.

Chalupski visited the Holy Land for the first time in March 2011 on a Birthright trip and will be making Aliyah in May, when he will be moving to Haifa.

During his first full competitive season representing Israel in 2010/2011, Bradley earned a spot for the Israeli team in the top level WorldCup circuit.

Fresh off his medal-winning performance at the Americas Cup in December he will represent Israel at the World Championships in February. He has very realistic hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Sochi Games.

The Jerusalem Post will be following Bradley's quest to become this country's first Winter Olympic medalist.

Chalupski Competes in World Cup Finale

Last night, Brad Chalupski competed for Team Israel in the final World Cup race of the season at Calgary Olympic Park.  This was Brad's second race competing on the World Cup circuit.  Although he finished in 27th place, Brad managed to shave a half second off his previous best time at Calgary.

Also noteworthy, video of Brad's two World Cup races are available through the FIBT's official video site.  FIBT streams live World Cup coverage through http://eurovision.digotel.com/fibt/index.html.

Whistler (More Channels -> World Cup 7 - Whistler) - Jump to ~ 55 minutes into Mens' Skeleton, Heat 1.


Calgary (More Channels -> World Cup 8 - Calgary) - Jump to ~ 1 hour, 1 minute into Mens' Skeleton, Heat 1.

(Sadly, video is not available in Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France and Italy.)

"To The Promised Land"

Brad's quest for the 2014 Olympics was featured in an article on JSpace today.

http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/to-the-promised-land-bradley-chalupski-s-quest-for-the-olympics-and-much-much-more/7466

Official FIBT Preview of Calgary Race

Excerpted from http://www.fibt.com/index.php?id=88&newsId=3936&backUrl=index.php%253Fid%253Dhome

Bradley Chalupski (ISR) gave a double debut at the Viessmann FIBT World Cup in Whistler. The 27-year-old competed in the World Cup for the first time in his career, and was the first skeleton pilot from Israel ever to compete in the highest ranking tour of the FIBT season. Chalupski came to the sport of skeleton out of curiosity: “Honestly? I saw it on the television, watching the 2006 Olympics in Torino, and said to myself, ‘That looks like a ton of fun and I bet I could be good at that,’ said the athlete on the website of Seton Hall University in the US state of New Jersey before the Königssee World Championships last year. Bradley Chalupski is also the first skeleton slider from Israel to compete in a World Championships. (RWH)

WORLD CLASS: Israel Debuts on FIBT World Cup Circuit

On Friday, February 3rd, skeleton athlete Bradley Chalupski proudly represented Israel at the FIBT World Cup race held at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Vancouver.  This was the same track made infamous by the death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili in training runs for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

In a field of 25 athletes, Bradley finished in 25th place with a time of 56.61 seconds, failing to qualify for a second run.  However, Brad's push time of 4.76 was good for a tie for 17th place in the first heat.  Giving a sense of how tightly packed the field was, 4 athletes were tied for 13th with a 4.75 start, and the 10th fastest push was a 4.73.  Bradley actually out-pushed German Alexander Kroeckel (4.77), who placed fourth overall.

"The track was fast and very difficult," said Chalupski, "but by the end of the race, I was doing better than I expected.  I was only two-tenths of a second behind the next guy ahead, and took a bad bump in the 16th turn, actually the worst I drove it out, including my training runs.  My sliding was actually too controlled [in the race], and that's given my confidence a huge boost."

Bradley looks to open it up a little more on his return to the track at Calgary in next week's World Cup race there, which will be the last stop before returning to Lake Placid for World Championships.


Official results can be found on the FIBT website:  http://www.fibt.com/index.php?id=526&tx_pxresults_pi1[event_id]=26575&cHash=ec1a1dc6dccbbf80580fa68bd439640f

An Author and an Athlete

Skeleton athlete Brad Chalupski has been picked up by Birthright Israel's "Alef Next" website as a recurring columnist.  In a series of articles, Bradley will explain the motivation behind his competing for Team Israel, and the role his Jewish faith has played during his Olympic campaign.

His latest entry, "An Athlete For Israel", can be found here.

Skeleton Team Adds Two World Cup Races to Schedule

The Israeli Skeleton Team is proud to announce that it will be competing in the North American leg of the FIBT World Cup season.  Once the World Cup tour ends its European swing later this month, the best athletes in the world will be competing in:

• Vancouver (January 29 - February 4) - World Cup race at the Whistler Sliding Center, used during the 2010 Games and widely considered the fastest track in the world;
• Calgary (February 5 - February 11) - World Cup race at Calgary.  Brad competed on this track in an America's Cup race earlier this season, and hopes to leverage that experience into a competitive finish;
• Lake Placid (February 13 - February 26) - World Championships in Lake Placid.  In December, Brad earned Israel her first ever medal in Skeleton on this track.  In February, Brad will attempt to make Team Israel a fixture in the world rankings.

World Cup races are televised by NBC Universal, and highlights featured on the FIBT website.  Keep a sharp eye out for any clips of Team Israel, as ours figures to be one of the more compelling ones on the World Cup circuit.

For more information on watching the World Cup races in person, please contact office@israelibobsled.com.