LAKE PLACID — USA Bobsled and Skeleton recently announced its upcoming World Cup bobsled team.

The team includes four women’s pilots, and six push athlete while the men’s team included three pilots and 11 push athletes.

After taking maternity leave last season, Kaillie Humphries returns to the team. Pilots Elana Meyers-Taylor and Kaysha Love also earned a bye onto the team from their 2023/24 World Championships results. The fourth spot was awarded to Sylvia Hoffman following selection races last week in Lake Placid.

The six push female athletes selected are as follows: Bailey Golden, Azaria Hill, Jasmine Jones, Lolo Jones, Sadie McMullen and Emily Renna. However, McMullen and Lolo Jones have pre-planned obligations for the first half of the season and were replaced by Jestena Mattson and Michelle Quinn for the start of the season. The selection committee will meet in December to review the first half and select the World Cup team for the second half of the season.

The men’s pilots did not receive a bye based on performance from the previous season. Frankie Del Duca, Geoff Gadbois and Kris Horn earned spots from their results in the selection races.

The male push athletes who have been named to the World Cup team are as follows: Hakeem Abdul-Saboor, Adrian Adams, Bryce Cheek, Martin Christofferson, Dylan Gilbert, Manteo Mitchell, Boone Niederhofer, Hunter Powell, Bryan Sosoo, Carsten Vissering and Charlie Volker.

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Skeleton team

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The U.S. World Cup skeleton team for the first half of the sliding season was also announced last week.

For the women, the USA earned three quota spots. Mystique Ro earned a bye based on her IBSF ranking from the 2023/24 season.

Katie Uhlaender and Sara Roderick were awarded the other two spots based on their results in selection races on Nov. 2 in Park City, Utah. Kelly Curtis earned the fourth World Cup spot from the IBSF maternity clause.

For the men, USA earned three quota spots with Austin Florian, Dan Barefoot and Nick Tucker being named to the World Cup team based on their results from the selection races. However, due to the IBSF World Cup schedule and the necessary planning required to go to Asia, the committee has discretionarily awarded the first three races to Hunter Williams. Tucker could then assume the third WC spot after the Asian races.

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Skelton World Cup

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PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA — Team USA skeleton participated in the first IBSF World Cup races of the sliding season this past weekend.

Uhlaender earned 14th place in the first women’s skeleton race of the season on Saturday with a two-run time of 1 minute, 49.08 seconds. The following day, Uhlaender placed 16th with a time of 1:46.79.

Ro placed 15th in the Friday’s race in 1:49.10, and 18th in Saturday’s race in 1:47.07. Roderick placed 18th and 12th, with a times of 1:49.49 and 1:46.49, respectively. Curtis placed 23rd on the first day in 1:50.45 and 33rd on the next day with a one-run time of 55.14.

In men’s skeleton, Florian kicked of Friday’s race in 14th place with a combined time of 1:47.74. Teammate Barefoot placed 21st in 1:48.64, while Williams placed 33rd with a one-run time of 57.40.

On Saturday, Florian placed 14th with a two-run time of 1:43.93, Barefoot was 21st in 1:45.27 and Williams placed 29th with a one-heat time of 53.92.

These World Cup races came following two days of Asian Cup races on Nov. 8 and 9.

Ro took sixth in both two-heat races in that competition, while Uhlaender placed 10th in the first race and 13th in the second. Roderick placed 15th on Nov. 8 and 22nd on Nov. 9 and Curtis placed 26th on and 29th, respectively.

On the men’s side, Florian placed 18th in the first race and fourth in the second. Barefoot placed 25th and 34th, respectively, while Williams placed 42nd in both races.

Up next, the U.S. national skeleton team will compete in Yanqing, China on Saturday, Nov. 23 in the second IBSF World Cup of the season. Following that, the team will join the World Cup bobsled team in Altenberg, Germany to begin the European leg of the World Cup tour.