Kaysha Love wins indoor bobsled push-time nationals in Lake Placid

Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones pushing at Team USA Bobsled Push Champs in Lake Placid. Photo: courtesy of USA Bobsled Skeleton

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Each autumn the fastest American bobsled pushers compete in Lake Placid, where the only track exists which is built for push-time training. It’s also the only track in the USA that’s indoors, making artificial ice-creation and maintenance feasible. The only other North American indoor track was located in Calgary, Canada, however operations have ceased at their facility.

USA Bobsled Skeleton (USABS)  hosted athletes from around the country, including Kaysha Love who calls Park City her home track after growing up in the Salt Lake Valley. The Utah Olympic Park in Park City boasts an outdoor push track adjacent to their bobsled track. 

Love won this year’s event for the individual aka monobob women’s competition on Sept. 8 and 9. In this Olympic year, titles and jockeying for positions are starting to take shape. 

“In a sport where races are won by hundredths of a second, every part of a bobsled run matters — especially the push.” Wrote US Bobsled Skeleton on social media. “Competitors are measured on the speed and velocity of their pushes, with winners determined by their combined times from their two fastest runs.”

The first place results are as follows for the 2-women team categories:

• Fastest Push (Sept. 11 & 13):
  Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones – 5.390 sec
• Highest Velocity (Sept. 11 & 13):
  Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones – 12.162 m/s

Love represented the U.S. in the 2-woman bobsled at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. In Lake Placid last week she beat Sylvia Hoffman who placed second, followed by the third and fourth place finishers Kailie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, respectively.

The short push track has no curves allowing athletes to focus strictly on their sled-push, which can make or break any full track run in a broader competition. Bobsleds, from a physics standpoint, can only syphon precious hundreds of seconds on their way down a track. Pilots can’t gain speed, they can only loose speed which makes the start push time the most crucial aspect of the sport.