US Bobsled team knows some changes will come. But eyes are already on medals in 2028, 2030 and 2034

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Jadin O'Brien is thinking about 2028. Kaysha Love, Azaria Hill, Frank Del Duca and Kris Horn are already looking ahead to 2030. Kaillie Humphries Armbruster is wondering about 2034, maybe as an athlete, maybe in a different role.

And everyone is waiting to see Elana Meyers Taylor's next move.

USA Bobsled won what may as well be called the non-German division at the Milan Cortina Games, taking three medals. Germany — the sport's absolute powerhouse — won eight, Switzerland one, and no other nations found their way to the podium in any of the four bobsled events at these Olympics.

The three medals, a gold and two bronzes, match the U.S. total from the 2022 Beijing Games and American bobsledders have now won gold in back-to-back Winter Olympics for the first time since 1936 and 1948. The technology is getting better, thanks in large part to a sled builder who says he's sticking around through 2034 as well.

Meyers Taylor came as close as possible to saying she's retiring without actually saying it on Saturday night in the two-woman finale. And in fairness, immediately after a competition probably isn't the right time to decide anything.

She's 41. She and her husband want a third child. Being able to physically get through the Olympic season took a ton of work. All the signs suggest the end has arrived, and with six medals — tied with Humphries Armbruster for the most in women's Olympic bobsled history — there is nothing left to prove.

“Who am I to hold that honor of sliding with Elana?” O'Brien asked after the final run Saturday night. “But I hope people really just see these Games and give credit to E for who she is as a person and who she is as an athlete.”

Humphries Armbruster also wants a second child, and she was very public about her struggle with in vitro fertilization when she and her husband became parents for the first time. She's hoping this time goes more smoothly.

Having said that, Salt Lake City 2034 seems to be more on her mind than the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.

“I know what a home Olympics is like,” Humphries Armbruster said. “I was able to compete in one for Canada in 2010 and it is such an amazing feeling. I have no doubts that Salt Lake City is going to be unbelievable and I want to be there. It may be as a coach, it may be as an administrator, it maybe as an athlete. I have no idea. A lot’s going to depend on how I feel over the next couple years. I haven’t ruled anything out. I really have made zero choices.”

O'Brien was a three-time NCAA track and field champion at Notre Dame and will have her eyes on qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Bobsled is definitely not off the table for her going forward, either. She made it to the Olympics in her first season and after only two World Cup races, which is believed to be unprecedented on the women's level.

“Now I have a taste of what the Olympics is like, so why not do the summer version? Let's see what’s better,” O'Brien said. “I’m very excited and this whole ride with bobsled has been an incredible blessing and I could never have dreamed, had you asked me five months ago, that I'd be an Olympic bobsledder.”

Meyers Taylor is a huge believer in her, and said O'Brien is among the group that deserves some of the credit for her monobob gold — even though she was the only one in the sled.

“She's amazing, and I hope this gave her a good taste of what Olympics is like,” Meyers Taylor said. “I hope she had a great time. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t have a monobob medal without her.”

Love intends to be back, and the Utah native probably has eyes on 2034 as well. She and Hill are largely inseparable, and already are contenders on any track in the world.

“Rest assured, it’s definitely lit a fire under our butt,” Hill said of finishing fifth in two-woman. “We're going to keep working, we’re going to keep getting after it and you will see us again in 2030.”

Del Duca and Horn, the two top men's pilots in the program, plan to be back as well and many of the men's push athletes haven't ruled out another Olympic run. More depth will be needed, but the program could be in good shape to start the next four-year cycle.

It's pronounced “moo-sah.” It's spelled M-USA. And it stands for Made in the United States of America.

That is the U.S. sled program, and builder Marc Van Den Berg — who has found ways to build about $4 million worth of two-man and two-woman sleds, including all four of those that the Americans used in these Olympics — at no cost to the U.S. bobsled federation.

Make no mistake: Van Den Berg is a huge part of the program. His workshop in Lake Placid is basically the heartbeat of the team.

“Our equipment, I think, is exactly the same as the Germans. And some people say, even the Germans, that our equipment is better,” Van Den Berg said. “We're on the right track. We only have to improve a little bit to start and a little bit to drive.”

He plans to stay through the 2034 Olympics, and that likely means the sleds only get better. He's teamed up Massachusetts-based Advance Mfg. Co., Inc and North Carolina-based deBotech to help get the sleds built.

“We finally have equipment in two-man that is arguably some of the best in the world with the M-USA sleds,” Humphries Armbruster said. “I think it's awesome to know that they’re built and made in America, with all American parts. It's absolutely incredible and we’re really proud to showcase that here as a part of Team USA.”

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

United States' bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries lifts her son Aulden after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor slides down the track during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' Frankie del Duca, front, starts for a four man bobsled training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026.(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Islamabad said it carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, targeting what it called hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for recent attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Red Crescent Society said more than a dozen people were killed.

Pakistan didn't specify the locations targeted, but the Afghan defense ministry said in a statement “various civilian areas” in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrassa and multiple civilian homes.

The statement called the strikes a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid earlier on X said the attacks “killed and wounded dozens, including women and children.”

Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said 18 people were killed and several others wounded.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul and handed him a note of protest over Pakistani strikes. In a statement, the ministry said protecting Afghanistan’s territory is the Islamic Emirate’s “Sharia responsibility” and warned that Pakistan would be responsible for the consequences of such attacks.

On Sunday, villagers were seen clearing rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, while mourners were preparing for funerals of those killed. Habib Ullah, a local tribal elder, said those killed in the strikes were not militants. “They were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither Taliban, nor military personnel, nor members of the former government. They lived simple village lives,” he told The Associated Press.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted.

Tarar said Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region,” but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.

Hours before the Pakistani strikes, a suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the border district of Bannu in Pakistan’s northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel. Pakistan’s military warned after the attack that it would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible would press on.

Another suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle last week into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Pakistani authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.

Tarar said Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that the recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting on the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”

He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken. Tarar also asked the international community to press Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.

In Islamabad, security analyst Abdullah Khan said the Pakistani strikes suggest that Qatari, Turkish and even Saudi-led mediations have failed to resolve tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “These strikes are likely to further escalate the situation,” he said.

The Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries came about after deadly border clashes in October, killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.

The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, but several rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

Local residents stand next to a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

Local residents gather as bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

A man inspects a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

A bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

Local residents and civil defense workers look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)