Former Rebel set to compete for Team USA
Kaysha Love selected for first Winter Olympic Team
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Winter Olympics set to begin February 4th
Former UNLV sprinter Kaysha Love has been selected for the two-women bobsled team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Love, a first time member of Team USA, beat out former Olympians Lolo Jones and Lauren Gibbs for the “brakeman” spot on the sled.
Love will be paired up with Kaillie Humphries, a two-time gold medalist for Canada who became a US citizen last year, or Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist for the US.
A 2021 graduate of UNLV, the Herriman, Utah native holds the fourth fastest 60 meter dash in school history with a 7.33 in 2020. Love was also a part of the Rebel’s school record 4 x 100 meter relay team (43.81) in 2017.
In April 2020, Love was contacted by a member of the US Bobsled Team to gauge her interest in the sport. Love then competed in a “virtual combine,” resulting in an invitation to Team USA’s “pushcamp” in Lake Placid, N.Y. in November of 2020.
Motivational Monday
Don’t focus on where your at, how much experience you have, how old you are, or how much money you have!
Focus on what you want and how hard your willing to work for it
I asked Kaysha Love (UNLV T&F) to try Bobsled now she is on the 2022 Olympic Team! pic.twitter.com/wAPXxt64Bb
— COACH LARRY WADE (@coachlarrywade) January 17, 2022
Since then, Love secured her place on the Olympic team with consistent performances over the last few months. On Jan. 17, USA Bobsled revealed their 12 person team for the Beijing Games.
In the past few weeks, Love has been paired up with Taylor at various two-woman bobsled events in Europe. The duo has consistently been right behind the other Team USA pairing of Humphries and Sylvia Hoffman.
Team USA has a strong history in the woman’s bobsled discipline, having won a medal in every Olympic Games since the event’s inception at the 2002 Salt Lake City games. Team USA has famously recruited track and field athletes and former football players to serve as the “pushman” for the pilots of the sleds. At the ’92 Games in France, Herschel Walker, then a running back for the Minnesota Vikings, served as pushman for Brian Shimer. The duo finished seventh in the two-man event.
What sport hasn’t @HerschelWalker played? #tbt to the 1992 Winter #Olympics where he was on the U.S.A. bobsled team! #USAFootball
(Video via @CBSSports) pic.twitter.com/zFFk8D3ETQ
— USA Football 🇺🇸🏈 (@USAFootball) February 22, 2018
Walker’s start set the stage for other, “non-traditional” bobsledders to compete for Team USA.
Nick Cunningham, a former Mountain West track and field athlete and 2008 graduate of Boise State, was a three-time Olympic bobsledder for Team USA. In 2010, he placed 12th in the two-man and 13th in the four-man event. In ’14, he placed 13th in the two-man and 12th in the four-man. In his final Olympics, Cunningham finished 21st in the two-man and 19th in the four-man.
Happy #OlympicDay to all those who came before me, competed with me, and those who I’ll celebrate in the future. Once an #Olympian, Always an Olympian; Never Former- Never Past. #2010 #2014 #2018 #Bobsled pic.twitter.com/tg8nG3adv4
— Nick Cunningham, OLY (@BOBSLEDR) June 24, 2021
When to watch:
The Opening Ceremonies for the ’22 Games are scheduled for February 4th in Beijing. The two-women event will occur later that month, on the 18th and 19th at the National Sliding Centre in Yanqing, 62 miles up the road from Beijing.
How to watch:
The two-woman event will be live on NBC at 7 am MT on both the 18th and the 19th.
Odds:
Pairings are still to be determined but some off-shore betting sites have odds for the two-women event.
Canada (Christine de Bruin) +825
Germany (Mariama Jamanka) +700
Germany (Kim Kalicki) +355
USA (Elena Meyers Taylor) +615
Germany (Laura Nolte) +100
USA (Kaillie Humphreys) +405
(Odds via Bookmaker)
