LAKE PLACID – USA Bobsleigh/Skeleton on Monday announced the members of the team representing the United States for the 2023/2024 IBSF World Cup competition season.

The named athletes are as follows: Lauren Brzozowski, Kaysha Love and Elana Meyers-Taylor for the pilots; Azaria Hill, Jasmine Jones, Jestena Mattson, Sydney Milani and Emily Renna for Women in Press; Frankie Del Duca and Geoff Gadbois for male pilots; and Adrian Adams, Hakeem Abdul-Saboor, Jace Johnson, Darius Joseph, Manteo Mitchell, David Simon, Carsten Vissering and Josh Williamson for the male athletes.

“This is a great group of athletes that have been selected. Everyone has been training hard and we are all looking forward to seeing the hard work pay off as we start the World Cup season in a few weeks.” said Chris Fogt, coach of the American bobsledders.

USABS will kick off World Cup competition on December 8th in La Plagne, France.

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women

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Brzozowski enters his first season with the World Cup team after success on the North American Cup circuit. In total, he has been involved in this sport for four years. She comes from a strong athletic background and has successfully transferred her skills onto the ice from her time as an NCAA Division 1 athlete at Elon University. She was the first woman ever to win the overall monobob award in the IBSF North American Cup division.

Láska was a brakeman at the 2022 Olympics and has since moved to the driver’s seat. After starting her transition to bobsled less than a year ago, she took three first-place finishes at the NAC last weekend (November 15-19). While she has been on the World Cup circuit before, this will be her first year in the pilot’s seat.

Meyers-Taylor is a four-time Olympian with a total of five Olympic medals (three silver and two bronze). She has been bobsledding since 2007 and has been on the World Cup team every year of her nearly two decades in the sport except for the two seasons in which she gave birth to her sons. She cites making the 2014 Team USA as a quad pilot as one of her biggest accomplishments.

Hill is entering her rookie season, having only been involved in bobsleigh for five months. In that short period of time, she has placed in the top five at the 2023 National Bench Press Championships and placed first alongside Love on Day 2 of the NAC 2-Women last weekend.

Jones is an athlete who has raced on the World Cup circuit before. In Park City, Utah last November, she slipped into the top three and has already been part of the World Championships once. She is in her fifth year in the sport and cites last season’s World Cup circuit after returning from her pregnancy trip as one of her biggest achievements to date.

Mattson also comes from an athletic background and is entering his second year in the sport and on the World Cup circuit. This past weekend at the NAC race in Lake Placid, she placed first in the two-woman category alongside Love. He considers his fifth place at the Junior World Championships last season alongside Love to be one of the highlights of his career so far.

Milani has been involved in bobsleigh for one year. Coming from a track and field background alongside many of her teammates, she has since learned how to apply her athletic talents from the track to the ice rink. It will be her first year on the World Cup stage.

Renna has four years of bobsleigh experience and two years of sliding in the World Cup. In 2022, she won the bronze medal in two women. Earlier this year, she was named the 2023 Women’s Dual National Champion and also placed first in the 2023 National Bobsled Championships in the push-up category.

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Men

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Del Duca begins his ninth season as a pilot. He has two years of experience on the World Cup circuit as a pusher and this will be his second season on the circuit as a driver. He slipped past the USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics and became the 2021-2022 NAC champion. He has many top six finishes on the World Cup scene so far.

Gabois has been involved in this sport for more than ten years. During his 13 years of sliding, he also finished in the top six of the World Cup several times, and in 2019 he won a bronze medal at the World Championships in the mixed disciplines competition.

Adams has skated in World Cup events since 2014 and in various World Championships since 2015. He placed first in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2022 World Pushing Championships. This past weekend, he placed first in the second four-man competition of the NAC race.

Abdul-Saboor is a two-time Olympian who competed as an athlete at both the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. He has been competing on the World Cup circuit since 2016. His athletic background is in basketball, soccer and track. A strength coach who saw a video of him jumping to touch his head on a 10-metre ceiling prompted his switch to bobsledding. Last year, he participated in the 2022/2023 World Championships.

Johnson is entering his rookie year in bobsledding. He comes from a basketball background and was able to quickly transfer his athletic talent to the world of bobsled. Alongside Adams, he saw his first gold medal in the sport in the four-man race at the last NAC competition.

Joseph is entering his second year in the sport after originally being recruited in July 2022. In his rookie season, he competed in two separate World Cup races in Park City and Lake Placid. So far he has won two first place medals from NAC and two second place metals from NAC.

Mitchell is a former Olympic runner and silver medalist. During the pandemic, he moved into the world of bobsledding and hasn’t looked back since. In 2022, he won the four-man push world championship and a month later made his World Cup debut in Whistler.

Simon has been bobsledding since 2016. Since the beginning of the sport, he has more than a dozen top 6 finishes in NAC and European Cup competitions. It will be his first year on the World Cup stage.

Vissering has a unique background in swimming, having competed at the University of Southern California. Last year was his World Cup gliding debut and he also represented the USA at the 2022/2023 World Championships in the four-man competition.

Williamson has been bobsledding for more than seven years and has been an athlete on the World Cup circuit for five years. After participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics, he interrupted the 2022/2023 sliding season due to injury. He won two World Cup medals and started three times at the World Championships.

For more information on USA/Skeleton Bobsleigh, visit www.usabs.com.