Former Notre Dame track and field star Jadin O’Brien has been selected for the 2026 U.S. Olympic Bobsled and Skeleton Team. She will compete as a push athlete in the two-woman bobsled event at the Winter Olympics in Italy. O’Brien, a decorated pentathlon champion, earned her spot after strong performances on the World Cup circuit.
South Bend, Ind. – Jadin O’Brien, a standout former athlete from the University of Notre Dame, has been named to the 2026 U.S. Olympic Bobsled and Skeleton Team for the two-woman bobsled event. The announcement came from Team USA on January 19, 2026, highlighting O’Brien’s transition from track and field to winter sliding sports.
O’Brien, a native of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, joins five other athletes on three teams heading to the Olympics in Italy. She will serve as the push athlete alongside pilot Elana Meyers Taylor. The full women’s bobsled lineup includes pilots Kaillie Humphries with Jasmine Jones, Kaysha Love with Azaria Hill, and Meyers Taylor with O’Brien.
O’Brien’s athletic resume is impressive. During her time at Notre Dame, she became one of the most decorated track and field athletes in program history. She secured three NCAA championships in the pentathlon and finished as runner-up twice in the heptathlon. A ten-time All-American and two-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the heptathlon, O’Brien was named the 2025 USTFCCCA Indoor and Outdoor Great Lakes Region Field Athlete of the Year. In 2025, she achieved a historic feat as the fifth four-time indoor ACC champion in the pentathlon and the first combined events athlete to win four consecutive titles.
This marks O’Brien’s first selection to the USA Bobsled Team. She previously earned a spot on the Team USA World Cup team in September 2025. In December, she contributed to a fourth-place finish with Meyers Taylor at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup races in Sigulda, Latvia.
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will take place in Italy, with bobsled events at the Cortina Sliding Centre. Official training heats for the two-woman bobsled begin on February 17, 2026.
O’Brien’s selection underscores the appeal of bobsled to former track athletes, leveraging their speed and power in a new competitive arena.
