Jadin O'Brien was running track for Notre Dame a year ago. She's now an Olympic bobsledder.
O'Brien, who got in a sled for the first time only about three months ago, was one of the six women's bobsledders selected Monday to be part of the U.S. Olympic team that will compete at next month's Milan Cortina Games.
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Frank del Duca/ Joshua Williamson of the USA in action during the Men's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Kaysha Love/Emily Renna of the USA in action, during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Elana Meyers Taylor/Jadin O'Brien of USA in action during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Kaillie Armbruster Humphries/Jasmine Jones of the USA in action, during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Elana Meyers Taylor/Jadin O'Brien of the USA in action during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
O'Brien will push the sled driven by five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, who made the U.S. team for the fifth time — and has medaled in all four of her previous Olympic appearances.
Kaillie Humphries Armbruster, a three-time gold medalist, will also race in the Olympics for a fifth time between her tenures with Canada and now the U.S. She'll be in a sled with Jazmine Jones as her push athlete.
Kaysha Love — the reigning world champion in monobob — is on the team as well, her second Olympic trip and first as a pilot. She'll be in a sled with Azaria Hill, whose parents both were Olympians as well. Hill's mother is three-time Olympic sprint medalist Denean Howard-Hill and her father is boxing medalist Virgil Hill Sr.
“Being an Olympic legacy is, you know, one of a kind," said Azaria Hill, whose aunt — Sherri Howard, Denean's sister — was also an Olympic sprint medalist. "It’s amazing.”
It was long known that Meyers Taylor, Humphries Armbruster and Love would be the pilots on the team, and Jones and Hill getting selected was generally expected as well. That basically left one push athlete spot and O'Brien, who immediately turned heads in preseason training, got the nod.
O’Brien won NCAA indoor track and field pentathlon national championships for Notre Dame in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She was competing in the U.S. track championships as recently as September and was initially skeptical when invited to try bobsled. And now she's an Olympian with a serious chance of winning a medal.
"These athletes have earned their place through their incredible effort, talent, and perseverance," USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire said.
The men's team saw the U.S. qualify two pilots, and the Americans are sending six brakemen as well.
Frank Del Duca, racing in his family's homeland at these Olympics, will drive USA-1 and have Josh Williamson, Boone Niederhofer and Bryan Sosoo in his sled. Kris Horn was the other men's pilot to make the team, with Carsten Vissering, Hunter Powell and Caleb Furnell in his sled.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Frank del Duca/ Joshua Williamson of the USA in action during the Men's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Kaysha Love/Emily Renna of the USA in action, during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Elana Meyers Taylor/Jadin O'Brien of USA in action during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Kaillie Armbruster Humphries/Jasmine Jones of the USA in action, during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
Elana Meyers Taylor/Jadin O'Brien of the USA in action during the Women's 2-Bob World Cup, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Mayk Wendt/Keystone via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. military says a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq and rescue operations are underway.
The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.
Here’s what is known so far about the tanker, which is the fourth publicly acknowledged U.S. aircraft to crash during the war against Iran:
The KC-135 Stratotanker is a U.S. Air Force aircraft used to refuel other planes in midair, allowing them to travel longer distances and maintain operations longer without landing. The plane is also used to transport wounded personnel during medical evacuations or conduct surveillance missions, according to military experts.
Based on the same design as the Boeing 707 passenger plane, the tanker has been in service for more than 60 years, supporting the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as allied aircraft, according to an Air Force description. The aging plane is set to be phased out as the air force receives a full complement of next-generation KC-46A Pegasus tankers.
Despite upgrades over the years, the KC-135s' age has fueled concern about their reliability and durability.
“The last of these planes were produced in the 1960s,” said Yang Uk, a security expert at South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He added that the transition to the KC-46A has progressed more slowly than expected.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Air Force last year had 376 KC-135s, including 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard and 62 in the Air Force Reserve.
A basic KC-135 crew has three people: a pilot, co-pilot and boom operator. Nurses and medical technicians are added in aeromedical evacuation missions.
Refueling typically happens at the back of the plane, where the boom operator is located. A fuel boom is lowered to connect with fighters, bombers or other aircraft. On many of the planes, the boom operator works lying face down while looking out of a window on the underside of the plane.
Some KC-135s can also refuel planes from pods on their wings. The tankers also have room above the fuel stores to carry cargo or passengers if needed.
Refueling tankers could play an increasingly important role if the Iran war drags on, as U.S. aircraft may need to fly longer missions to pursue Iranian forces retreating deeper into the country, said Yang.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from the crash in Iraq. A U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation, said the plane was carrying at least five crew members.
A second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the other plane involved in the incident was also a KC-135. Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., wrote on X that the other plane landed safely in Israel.
The U.S. Central Command did not elaborate on the circumstances of the crash, but said it “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
Yang said it would be rare for a refueling tanker to be downed by enemy fire because such operations are usually conducted in the rear of combat zones.
The crash came after three U.S. F-15E fighter jets were mistakenly downed last week by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
KC-135s have been involved in several fatal accidents. The most recent happened on May 3, 2013, when a KC-135R crashed after takeoff south of Chaldovar, Kyrgyzstan while taking part in the war in Afghanistan.
In that crash, the crew experienced problems with the plane’s rudder, according to a U.S. Air Force investigation. While they struggled to stabilize the plane, the tail section broke away and the plane exploded midair, killing all three crewmembers onboard.
The most serious mid-air collision involving the plane happened in 1966, when a B-52 bomber carrying nuclear bombs struck a tanker near Palomares, Spain.
The accident caused the tanker to crash, killing four onboard. The disaster led to an extensive decontamination effort to clean up nuclear material dispersed when conventional explosives in the hydrogen bombs detonated after hitting the ground.
Schreck reported from Bangkok. AP writers Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.
FILE - A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refueling tanker aircraft takes off from the Kadena Air Base airfield in Kadena town, west of Okinawa, southern Japan, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
FILE - A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft performs a flyover during the national anthem before an NCAA college football game between Central Florida and Georgia Tech, Sept. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
