Meet Team USA’s 2022 Olympic Bobsled Team
Team USA Bobsled is heading to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games with serious medal-winning potential. Bobsled pilots Elana Meyers Taylor and Kaillie Humphries are both four-time Olympians in women’s bobsled….
Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Carlo Valdes and Charles Volker of USA compete in the 4-man Bobsleigh during Day Three of the BMW IBSF World Cup Bob & Skeleton 2021/22 at Veltins Eis-Arena on December 12, 2021 in Winterberg, Germany.
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty ImagesTeam USA Bobsled is heading to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games with serious medal-winning potential. Bobsled pilots Elana Meyers Taylor and Kaillie Humphries are both four-time Olympians in women’s bobsled.
The U.S. women have won medals at every Olympic Winter Games since women’s bobsled debuted at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. The U.S. men are not considered medal favorites at the 2022 Games, but don’t count them out: veteran pilot Hunter Church recently finished on the podium for the second time and hopes to carry that momentum to the Beijing track.
This year, 12 U.S. bobsledders qualified for the 2022 Winter Games: four women and eight men. They will compete in two events per gender. Unlike the regular world cup races, Olympic bobsled races involve four runs held over two days (rather than two runs in one day), making the sport even more mentally challenging.
Here are the remaining bobsled events:
Friday, Feb. 18, 7:00 a.m. - Two-Woman Bobsled: Heats 1, 2
Friday, Feb. 18, 8:30 p.m. - Four-Man Bobsled: Heats 1, 2
Saturday, Feb, 19, 7:00 a.m. - Gold medal event: Two-Woman Bobsled: Heats 3, 4
Saturday, Feb, 19, 8:30 p.m. - Gold medal event: Four-Man Bobsled: Heats 3, 4
Here’s a look at who is on the 2022 U.S. Olympic bobsled team:
Kaillie Humphries
Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesKaillie Humphries, 36, is the most decorated woman in bobsled history: she won three Olympic medals — two golds and a bronze — and 13 world championship medals.
Elana Meyers Taylor
Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesElana Meyers Taylor, 37, is a two-time women’s bobsled world and overall world cup champion. She’s won 19 world cup races as well.
Sylvia Hoffman
Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesSylvia Hoffman earned six world cup medals. In her Olympic debut, the 32-year-old will be competing for a medal.
Kaysha Love
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty ImagesKaysha Love, 24, made her world cup debut this season, pushing in six races and never finishing lower than sixth place. Love has one world cup medal in her collection.
Hunter Church
Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesHunter Church, 25, is a third generation bobsledder from New York. He made the podium for the first time in 2020, becoming the first U.S. bobsled pilot to win a world cup medal since the late Steven Holcomb took third in four-man at the Innsbruck World Cup in February 2017.
Hakeem Abdul-Saboor
Marianna Massey/Getty ImagesAbdul-Saboor, 34, made his Olympic debut in 2018 as a brakeman for Nick Cunningham in both the two- and four-man events.
Carlo Valdes
Ron Jenkins/Getty ImagesCarlo Valdes, 31, made his world cup debut in December 2014. During the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Valdes won 10 world cup medals in both two- and four-man races. Valdes made his first U.S. Olympic Team in 2018 as a push athlete for Justin Olsen.
Josh Williamson
Joe Scarnici/Getty ImagesIn January 2018, Josh Williamson competed with Hunter Church at the U23 world championships, finishing sixth. Williamson won his first world cup medal (bronze) in four-man as a brakeman for Hunter Church in 2020. In early January 2022, Williamson, now 25 years old, won another world cup bronze, again in Church’s four-man sled.
