Elana Meyers Taylor is seen in November 2017 following the Americans’ training session at the Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

ST MORITZ, Switzerland — USA Bobsled/Skeleton announced Monday, Jan. 17 the 12 athletes nominated to represent Team USA in the bobsled events at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China. The U.S. will field two sleds in all four bobsled disciplines.

“The selection committee met to thoroughly deliberate who should be nominated to this team, and it wasn’t an easy decision,” said Aron McGuire, USA Bobsled/Skeleton chief executive officer. “We are fortunate to have a deep talent pool, but that makes it really difficult to decide who gets selected. We are proud of this team, and we’re looking forward to watching them represent the United States in Beijing.”

Elana Meyers Taylor (Douglasville, Georgia) and Kaillie Humphries (Carlsbad, California) will lead the U.S. bobsled team’s medal hopes in Beijing as pilots for the two women’s sleds. The push athletes named to compete with Meyers Taylor and Humphries are, in alphabetic order, Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas) and Kaysha Love (Herriman, Utah). The pairings will be decided in the coming weeks.

Hoffman was first recruited for the national bobsled team in 2018 on “The Next Olympic Hopeful.” She attended Louisiana State University Shreveport, and Hoffman has a wealth of experience in various sports such as basketball and weightlifting. Love was discovered through the USA Bobsled/Skeleton virtual combine on GMTM.com in 2020. She was a standout track and field athlete at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before transitioning to bobsled.

Aja Evans (Chicago, Illinois) was selected as the alternate for the women’s team. Evans claimed the 2014 Olympic bronze medal with pilot Jamie Greubel Poser. She raced with Greubel Poser again at the 2018 Olympics, where the duo finished fifth. Evans took time away from the sport after 2018, and returned this season to make a bid for her third Olympic team.

The U.S. women have medaled in every Olympic Winter Games since women’s bobsled debuted in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Games. Meyers Taylor claimed three of the six medals earned by U.S. women since 2002; bronze as a push athlete in 2010, and silver as a driver in 2014 and 2018. Humphries is also a three-time Olympic medalist, earning gold in 2010 and 2014, and bronze in 2018 as a Canadian. Humphries received her American citizenship in December, and will be battling alongside Meyers Taylor for gold. It won’t be just one gold medal that the Americans will be vying for, but two with the addition of women’s monobob to the 2022 Olympic program. Meyers Taylor and Humpries are favorites in both disciplines. Humphries is the reigning women’s monobob and two-woman bobsled world champion, and Meyers Taylor was just awarded the 2021-2022 women’s monobob and two-woman bobsled World Cup titles.

Hunter Church (Cadyville, New York) and Frank Del Duca (Bethel, Maine) earned their spots at the helm of the two men’s bobsleds. The pool of men’s push athletes nominated to compete are, in alphabetical order: Hakeem Abdul Saboor (Powhatan, Virginia), Kris Horn (Pembroke, Massachusetts), Jimmy Reed (Garmisch, Germany), Carlo Valdes (Newport Beach, California), Charlie Volker (Fair Haven, New Jersey) and Josh Williamson (Lake Mary, Florida).

Abdul Saboor and Valdes have the most experience of the American men, having both competed at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The other six men will be making their Olympic debuts in Beijing.

Church is a third generation bobsledder and took his first trip in a bobsled when he was 7 years old. His nearly lifelong dream of becoming an Olympian is finally here. Del Duca started the sport as a national team push athlete, and made the transition to the front of the sled when he did not make the 2018 Olympic team. Del Duca was promoted to the World Cup tour for the final two races after medaling in all 16 North American Cup races this season. Del Duca and Abdul Saboor are Soldier-athletes, and are members of the Army World Class Athlete Program.

Horn began competing the season after the 2018 Olympics. He was an All-American in the pentathlon, decathlon, and distance medley relay at the University of Massachusetts. Reed served as an alternate at the 2018 Olympics, and has dedicated the last four years to making it on the Olympic roster. Volker is the newest member of the team. He’s a first-team All-Ivy League running back from Princeton that was hoping for a chance at catching on with an NFL team for a training camp. But because of COVID-19, the training camp was canceled. Volker took the USA Bobsled/Skeleton virtual combine on GMTM.com instead, and just one year later he punched his ticket to Beijing. Williamson was an NCAA Division I lacrosse player at Mercer University, and found his way to bobsled as the Season 1 winner of the “The Next Olympic Hopeful” in 2017.

Nic Taylor (Hayward, California) was selected as the alternate for the men’s team. Taylor was the replacement athlete for the team at the 2018 Olympics.

The Olympic bobsled events will be held in a four heat format over two days. Women’s monobob will be contested first from Feb. 13 to 14. Two-man bobsled will take place from Feb. 14 to 15, two-woman from Feb. 18 to 19, and four-man from Feb. 19 to 20 to close out the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

All U.S. Olympic team selections are subject to approval by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.