At 40 and 41, Humphries Armbruster and Meyers Taylor still are legit Olympic bobsled contenders

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — They're both in their 40s. They're both moms. Elana Meyers Taylor has five Olympic medals already, the most by any Black woman in Winter Games history. Kaillie Humphries Armbruster has three Olympic gold medals, more than any female bobsledder ever.

Their legacies were secured long ago.

Yet here they are, at the Milan Cortina Games — certainly capable of finding their ways to the medal stand once again. They'll be two of the three U.S. bobsledders in the women's monobob event that starts Sunday, and when they hit the starting line they'll become the first 40-somethings to compete in women's bobsled at any Olympics.

Meyers Taylor is 41, Humphries Armbruster is 40. They've both competed in four previous Olympics, and they've both come home with at least one medal every time. Keeping that streak alive in this week isn't out of the question.

“It’s something that I’m very proud of, that I’ve been able to do it for this long, at this level," said Humphries Armbruster, who has officially been named to six Olympic teams — she was with Canada in 2006 but didn't compete in those games.

"When I got involved in bobsled early on, when I was 17, 18, I could have never imagined. I was lucky to even go to one. ... To walk away with medals, to be the best in the world, to have competed at a home Olympics, it just means so much to me personally to be able to be the best version of myself and to have that opportunity as a female athlete to do it.”

Their numbers are ridiculous. They’ve combined for 58 World Cup monobob and two-woman race wins — 37 for Humphries Armbruster, 21 for Meyers Taylor — and 130 World Cup medals. They’ve got a combined 18 world championships medals (Humphries Armbruster leads 10-8) and nine Olympic medals (Meyers Taylor leads 5-4).

They've done all that while missing time to become mothers. Meyers Taylor has two children, Humphries Armbruster one. They have been both friends and rivals, and when Humphries Armbruster obtained her U.S. passport in time to start racing with the Americans before the 2022 Beijing Games, they became teammates as well.

“The sense of history hasn’t sunk in, I think, because I’m still in it, because I am still fighting every day to try and win these medals," said Meyers Taylor, whose two medals as a 37-year-old in Beijing made her the oldest medal winner in women's Olympic bobsled history — a record she'd like to break this week. “It hasn’t sunken in, what it means and what it will mean to me. Every time I hear the stats, I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ It doesn’t even register sometimes because you’re so focused on the day-to-day, so focused on what’s next and what you’re trying to do."

The U.S. women's bobsled lineup is loaded. Along with Meyers Taylor and Humphries Armbruster, there's a third pilot in Kaysha Love — who is only the reigning world monobob champion. Love pushed for Humphries Armbruster at the Beijing Games, then moved into the front seat after that season and has made that transition, which isn't easy, look very easy.

Those three pilots teamed up to win nine medals in this World Cup season, more than any other nation — other than juggernaut Germany, which won 60 — in both men's and women's bobsledding combined.

And for Humphries Armbruster, there is a certain irony that she's still racing. Her first Olympics were the Turin Games in 2006, when she came to Italy expecting to race — she was a push athlete then — only to find out a few days before the event that she wouldn't be in a sled.

“Things always work out for the better and the 2006 Olympics was a prime example," Humphries Armbruster said. “I was ready to walk away from the sport. I was an alternate at those games. Four days before the event, I thought I was racing and then, bam!, I’m not racing. I walked into an opening ceremony, I was going ‘I’m an Olympian, I did it’ and then fast forward 10 days later I’m not racing. I thought my world was over.”

Turns out, it was just getting started. She became a legend. So did Meyers Taylor. They are GOATs in their sport, mentors to many, and if all that wasn't enough the monobob race that they and 23 other women will drive in at these Olympics exists largely because of their efforts.

It was about a decade ago when they pushed for four-woman bobsled to be added, so women — who only had the two-person event — could have two medal events like their male competitors. It wasn't feasible, but from the four-man idea the monobob idea really began picking up steam.

Humphries Armbruster won the inaugural Olympic monobob gold at Beijing four years ago. Meyers Taylor was second. And on Sunday, they'll open the quest to add to their medal collections.

“I’ve been extremely privileged to be able to come out here and do this, and come out and do what I love,” Meyers Taylor said. "At the end of the day, I’m a kid sliding down a hill. I absolutely love it, and the fact that I’ve been able to win medals doing it, it’s crazy. Like, who does this?”

They do.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Kaillie Armbruster Humphries starts for a women's monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor starts for a women's monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor slides down the track during a women's monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor slides down the track during a women's monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drone strikes killed one person in Ukraine and another in Russia, officials said Saturday, ahead of fresh talks next week aimed at ending the war.

An elderly woman died when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

In Russia, a civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in the border region of Bryansk, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said.

Russia-installed authorities said a Ukrainian airstrike on a village Saturday wounded 15 people in Ukraine’s partially occupied Luhansk region.

The attacks came a day after a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border city of Belgorod killed two people and wounded five, according to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Meanwhile, another round of U.S.-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine will take place next week in Geneva, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor, officials in Moscow and Kyiv said on Friday.

The discussions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, confirmed the new round of negotiations.

The talks take place against a backdrop of continued fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line, relentless Russian bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine and the country’s power grid, and Kyiv’s almost daily long-range drone attacks on war-related assets on Russian soil.

Previous U.S.-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked American and European allies for helping Ukraine by providing air defense systems that protect infrastructure like power plants and “save lives.”

“Russian attacks happen almost every night in Ukraine and at least once a week, massive strikes,” he said, speaking in English. “Without you Americans, Europeans, and everyone who stands with us, it would have been very, very difficult to hold on.”

He reiterated his belief that security guarantees for Ukraine must come before any peace agreement with Russia.

Zelenskyy said last week that the United States has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal. Previous deadlines given by U.S. President Donald Trump have passed largely without consequence.

Morton reported from London.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the audience during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aknowledges the audience after delivering an address during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Journalist Christiane Amanpour, right, chairs a panel with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the audience during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Ukrainian servicemen of special police unit take part in training at the training field in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)