Love, Humphries-Armbruster among 24 on U.S. World Cup bobsled team

World champion Kaysha Love, three-time Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries-Armbruster and five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor were named to the U.S. World Cup bobsled team Saturday, as the Americans began shaping their roster for this winter's Milan-Cortina Games.

Also making the team: a three-time NCAA indoor track champion for Notre Dame, a former Dartmouth football player and a Division II school's assistant athletic trainer - someone who hadn't seen a bobsled until a few weeks ago.

The 24-person roster -- with on-ice training expected later this fall at Park City, Utah -- will represent the U.S. on the World Cup circuit that starts on the Olympic track in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, in mid-November. Being on the national team doesn't automatically assure sliders of an Olympic roster spot, but being part of Saturday's selections is a big step toward securing a place on that team.

"I'm to give it my absolute best," said Humphries-Armbruster, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in monobob -- the race where Love is the reigning world champion. "I'm preparing for that to be the very best. I want to walk away golden again."

A variety of factors were taken into account when selecting the team, including past performance and results from the push championships held earlier this month at the team's facility in Lake Placid, New York. There were 69 competitors - 13 pilots and 56 push athletes - in that event, and only about one in three went on to make the World Cup team.

Among those who competed in that event and was not selected Saturday: Lolo Jones, who made the Summer Olympics in 2008 and 2012 and narrowly missed a medal as a 100-meter hurdler, then competed for the U.S. at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014 and was part of a world bobsled championship with Humphries-Armbruster in 2021. Not making the team Saturday doesn't necessarily exclude someone from the Olympic team, though it makes the path toward reaching Cortina in February considerably tougher.

The World Cup team could be changed in mid-December, if the selection committee deems it necessary, and the Olympic team is expected to be formally nominated on Jan. 19.

"We have an exceptionally talented pool of athletes heading into the Olympic season, which made the selection process highly competitive," USA Bobsled head coach Chris Fogt said. "The committee is confident in the athletes we've named, and we're eager to begin sliding in Park City next month as we prepare for the World Cup races in November."

The newcomers Jadin O'Brien won the last three NCAA indoor track and field pentathlon national championships for Notre Dame, was competing in the U.S. track championships last month and now could see herself heading to the Winter Olympics. O'Brien was one of the biggest surprises of the push championships, given how she had never competed in the sport until now.

"She pushed for two weeks, and she was pushing with our top girls already," said Meyers Taylor, the only Black athlete in Olympic history with five medals from the Winter Games - two of them won at Beijing in 2022. "Not to get too patriotic or whatever, but I think bobsled is one of those American-dream kind of stories. You can come from nowhere and come in and make an Olympic team and have an opportunity to live your Olympic dream. That's not true in a lot of sports."

O'Brien was one of six women's push athletes selected to the team.

Former Dartmouth football player Quinten Arello, who had a rookie minicamp opportunity with the Tennessee Titans last year, was one of 12 men's push athletes picked for the team. Also in that group of 12 was Ryan Rager, who sprinted for Division II's Cedarville University and is now an assistant athletic trainer at his alma mater.

Rager competed in a tryout combine in May, his first taste of anything bobsled-related. Fast forward about five months, and he's on the national team.

"I don't know exactly what I'm getting myself into, but I'm game for it," he told the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette earlier this month. "I'm looking forward to it, no matter what."

Olympic medalist Hoffman returns Sylvia Hoffman, who pushed Meyers Taylor to the Olympic bronze medal at Beijing in 2022, was among the six women picked as a push athlete.

Jasmine Jones - who had a record-setting push at the push championships earlier this month - also made the team, as did Emily Renna, Azaria Hill, Sadie McMullen and O'Brien.

Hoffman (seven), Jones (three), Renna (two) and Hill (one) have combined to be part of 13 World Cup medal-winning efforts.

Del Duca leads men's side Frank Del Duca, who drove to fourth-place finishes in both the two- and four-man events at the world championships in Lake Placid in March, leads a group of three men's drivers picked for the team.

Kris Horn, who had a seventh-place finish at worlds in four-man and was ninth in the two-man race, also made the squad as a pilot, as did veteran Geoff Gadbois.

Two-time Olympian Hakeem Abdul-Saboor and 2022 Olympians Josh Williamson and Charlie Volker made the men's push roster, along with Arello, Rager, Adrian Adams, Bryce Cheek, Caleb Furnell, Boone Niederhofer, Hunter Powell, Bryan Sosoo and Carsten Vissering.