Jadin O’Brien’s rapid rise is complete. The track star is now a US Olympic bobsledder

Jadin O’Brien was running track for Notre Dame a year ago. She’s now an Olympic bobsledder.

O’Brien, who got in a sled for the first time only about three months ago, was one of the six women’s bobsledders selected Monday to be part of the U.S. Olympic team that will compete at next month’s Milan Cortina Games.

O’Brien will push the sled driven by five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, who made the U.S. team for the fifth time — and has medaled in all four of her previous Olympic appearances.

Kaillie Humphries Armbruster, a three-time gold medalist, will also race in the Olympics for a fifth time between her tenures with Canada and now the U.S. She’ll be in a sled with Jazmine Jones as her push athlete.

Kaysha Love — the reigning world champion in monobob — is on the team as well, her second Olympic trip and first as a pilot. She’ll be in a sled with Azaria Hill, whose parents both were Olympians as well. Hill’s mother is three-time Olympic sprint medalist Denean Howard-Hill and her father is boxing medalist Virgil Hill Sr.

“Being an Olympic legacy is, you know, one of a kind,” said Azaria Hill, whose aunt — Sherri Howard, Denean’s sister — was also an Olympic sprint medalist. “It’s amazing.”

It was long known that Meyers Taylor, Humphries Armbruster and Love would be the pilots on the team, and Jones and Hill getting selected was generally expected as well. That basically left one push athlete spot and O’Brien, who immediately turned heads in preseason training, got the nod.

O’Brien won NCAA indoor track and field pentathlon national championships for Notre Dame in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She was competing in the U.S. track championships as recently as September and was initially skeptical when invited to try bobsled. And now she’s an Olympian with a serious chance of winning a medal.

“These athletes have earned their place through their incredible effort, talent, and perseverance,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire said.

The men’s team saw the U.S. qualify two pilots, and the Americans are sending six brakemen as well.

Frank Del Duca, racing in his family’s homeland at these Olympics, will drive USA-1 and have Josh Williamson, Boone Niederhofer and Bryan Sosoo in his sled. Kris Horn was the other men’s pilot to make the team, with Carsten Vissering, Hunter Powell and Caleb Furnell in his sled.

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics