19 athletes named to USA Bobsled National Team for 2021-2022 season

 

Lake Placid, N.Y. (September 6, 2021) –Nineteen athletes– nine women and 10 men– were named to the USA Bobsled National Team for the 2021-2022 season this morning. 

“We’re going to surprise some people this season,” said USA Bobsled Head Coach Mike Kohn. “We’ve witnessed outstanding performances throughout the offseason and during push championships, and it made the selection process extremely difficult. We have a group of athletes that are eager to compete and to show the world what we’re made of.”

Three-time Olympic medalist Kaillie Humphries (Carlsbad, Calif.) earned a bye onto the women’s team as a pilot by winning the two-woman and monobob World Championship titles last season and was officially named to the team today. Elana Meyers Taylor (Douglasville, Ga.), also a three-time Olympic medalist, dominated selection races to earn her spot, and 10-year veteran Brittany Reinbolt (Searcy, Ark.) will race as the third qualified U.S. pilot.

Six women were named to the pool of push athletes, and they are listed in alphabetical order by last name: Aja Evans (Chicago, Ill.), Lauren Gibbs (Los Angeles, Calif.), Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas), Lolo Jones (Des Moines, Iowa), Lake Kwaza (Sycamore, Ill.), and Kaysha Love (Herriman, Utah). 

Evans and Gibbs are both Olympic medalists. Evans claimed bronze with Jamie Greubel Poser at the 2014 Sochi Games, and Gibbs earned silver with Meyers Taylor at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Jones competed in the 2014 Sochi Games with Jazmine Fenlator, and this is her fifth national team nomination. It’s the fourth time that Hoffman, who is the reigning women’s push champion, has been named to the team. Kwaza spent some time in the driver’s seat and now returns to the national team as a push athlete. Love, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas track athlete, was recruited through the GMTM.com virtual combine last season and will make her racing debut this season. 

The men earned two quota spots on the World Cup tour. Hunter Church (Cadyville, N.Y.) will be at the helm of USA-1, and Olympian Codie Bascue (Whitehall, N.Y.) will pilot USA-2. Church and Bascue started driving bobsleds in the junior program and have over a decade of experience. 

The eight men selected as push athletes, listed in alphabetical order by last name, are: Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (Powhatan, Va.), Kris Horn (Pembroke, Mass.), Blaine McConnell (Tacoma, Wash.), Jimmy Reed (Garmisch, Germany), Nic Taylor (Hayward, Calif.), Carlo Valdes (Newport Beach, Calif.), Charlie Volker (Fair Haven, N.J.), and Josh Williamson (Lake Mary, Fla.).

Abdul-Saboor and Valdes are team veterans and both competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Reed and Taylor are also regulars on the national team roster and have served as Olympic alternates. Horn, McConnell and Williamson have competed throughout this quad with hopes of qualifying for the 2022 Beijing Games, and this is only Volker’s second season in the sport.

The season kicks off with a test event on the 2022 Olympic track in Beijing, China next month. The entirety of the World Cup season will take place in Europe in the leadup to the 2022 Olympics.

Please contact USABS Marketing & Communications Director Amanda Bird at 518-354-2250, or amanda.bird@usabs.com, for more information.

 

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About USA Bobsled & Skeleton

USA Bobsled & Skeleton (USABS), based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. For

more information, please visit the USABS website at www.usabs.com. Individuals interested in becoming a bobsled or skeleton athlete can visit www.usabobsledskeleton.com.