One of the most successful bobsledders in Olympic history teamed with a rookie to add another piece of hardware to the USA’s 2026 medal count.
Pilot Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and push athlete Jasmine Jones finished third in the two-woman bobsled event Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Cortina Sliding Center, giving Armbruster Humphries her sixth Olympic medal. The medal was also Armbruster Humphries’ second bronze of these Games following her third-place finish in monobob earlier this week, while Jones collects her first.
Armbruster Humphries’ medal count now equals that of fellow bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and legendary speed skater Bonnie Blair as the most decorated American women in Winter Olympic history with six medals apiece.
‘This is the first mom duo that gets to be on an Olympic podium,’ said Armbruster Humphries, who had son Aulden in June 2024, of herself and Jones, who had daughter Jade in Feb. 2021. ‘It really is special to team up with Jasmine this year, this season. But to share this moment together with her, to know what it took from all of our families to be able to support us, not just as athletes, but within our mom journeys as well, it really took everything we had. And I’m so proud of how Jasmine pushed and kept me in the game fighting.’
Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi of Germany successfully defended their 2022 gold. Their countrywomen Lisa Buckwitz and Neele Schuten took silver.
The first three medals of Armbruster Humphries’ Olympic career came during her time with Team Canada before she began competing for Team USA in 2019. In her first Olympics with the U.S., Armbruster Humphries won gold in the monobob in the 2022 Games in Beijing before adding monobob bronze behind Meyers Taylor’s gold here in Cortina on Feb. 16.
After two runs in two-woman Friday, Team USA had two of three sleds in the top five.
Humphries and Jones were third with a two-run time of 1:54.16, 0.23 seconds off leaders Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi of Germany. Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill were fifth with a time of 1:54.55, 0.39 seconds behind their closest teammates. Elana Meyers Taylor, the 2026 monobob gold medalist, and Jadin O’Brien were 12th at 1:55.13 after a disastrous second run that pushed them from 0.22 seconds behind the leader to 1.03.
Both Armbruster Humphries and Love held their position in the third run, while Meyers Taylor zoomed to sixth. Love finished fifth, while Meyers Taylor wasn’t able to overcome the second run and tied Swiss sliders Debora Annen and Salome Kora for seventh. It was the first non-podium finish of her Olympic career.
Jones was a sprinter at Eastern Michigan, where her coach nominated her for an All-American Award in 2018. That’s when Meyers Taylor reached out to Jones via email. Five years later, Jones made her IBSF World Championship debut. Three years after that, she won gold as Armbruster Humphries’ push athlete in an IBSF World Cup race in St. Moritz.
Now, she’s an Olympic medalist.
This story will be updated.
Reach USA TODAY Network sports reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
