US driver Kaillie Humphries Armbruster wins World Cup monobob race, building Olympic momentum

By: Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press Posted: 1:09 PM CST Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026

Kaillie Humphries Armbruster won Olympic gold when she was in her 20s. She won another Olympic gold in her 30s.

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Kaillie Humphries Armbruster won Olympic gold when she was in her 20s. She won another Olympic gold in her 30s.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2026 (261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kaillie Humphries Armbruster won Olympic gold when she was in her 20s. She won another Olympic gold in her 30s.

And now 40, she seems ready to chase even more gold.

Humphries Armbruster — who missed some of this Olympic cycle while becoming a mother for the first time — heds into next month’s Milan Cortina Games with a slew of momentum. She won the women’s monobob World Cup season finale at Altenberg, Germany, on Saturday, her third victory since December when adding in a pair of two-woman race wins.

Winner Kaillie Armbruster Humphries of the U.S. celebrates her victory in the monobob, women, 2nd run, competition of the Bobsleigh World Cup, in Altenberg, Germany, Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (Robert Michael/dpa via AP)

“The goal was always to build each and every race throughout this year up until the Olympics, and I think we’ve been pretty successful at that,” Humphries Armbruster said. “So, to be able to win at monobob again is a really good feeling. We still have a lot of work to do, but overall, it continues to be steps in the right direction, which is great.”

At 40 years and 4 months, Humphries Armbruster is now the oldest woman to win a World Cup monobob race — breaking the record set last season by fellow U.S. slider Elana Meyers Taylor, who got a pair of wins at 40 years and 3 months.

Humphries Armbruster, Meyers Taylor and reigning world monobob champion Kaysha Love will all be nominated to the U.S. Olympic team on Monday as the pilots for the women’s bobsled squad that will compete at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

“Age is just a number,” Humphries Armbruster said. “It does not define us or limit us in anything.”

Humphries Armbruster — the 2022 Olympic monobob champion — got her first World Cup monobob victory since February 2023, with Bree Walker of Australia second and Laura Nolte of Germany third.

Nolte took the season-long monobob title, with Walker second and Lisa Buckwitz of Germany third.

In two-man, Johannes Lochner of Germany capped his third season-long title in that discipline in the last four years — winning for the sixth time in seven races this season.

It was another German sweep: Adam Ammour drove to second and Francesco Friedrich finished third. Friedrich finished the two-man season in second place, Ammour third.

U.S. driver Frank Del Duca was the top American finisher Saturday, placing sixth.

Luge

Merle Fraebel of Germany won a World Cup women’s luge singles race Saturday at Oberhof, Germany, with Lisa Schulte of Austria second and Natalie Maag of Switzerland third.

Ashley Farquharson was ninth for the U.S., and Summer Britcher was 13th.

Jonas Mueller of Austria won the men’s singles race, with Felix Loch of Germany second in 1:24.640 and teammate Max Langenhan third in 1:24.824. For the U.S., Olympic team picks Jonny Gustafson and Matt Greiner were 19th and 20th, respectively.

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