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Months after getting into a bobsled, Jadin O’Brien has finished seventh at the Olympic Winter Games.
O’Brien, a Notre Dame graduate who was aiming to make the Olympics in track and field, teamed with Elena Meyers Taylor at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Standings were determined by two runs Friday and two Saturday.
It was an Instagram DM from Meyers Taylor, a five-time Olympian, that encouraged O’Brien to try out for bobsled. O’Brien thought it was a joke.
It was not.
So two days after finishing fifth in the heptathlon in the USA Championships in August 2025, she traveled to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a bobsled tryout.
She was teamed with Meyers Taylor, then did well enough in the lead-up to the Olympics to be chosen to Team USA. O'Brien became the push athlete for the 41-year-old Meyers Taylor, who won monobob in Italy for a sixth Olympic medal, equaling the most ever by an American woman.
“It has really been a roller-coaster of events,” O’Brien told The Associated Press. “Everything’s happened so fast, but ... I’ve kind of been conditioned to be able to handle new things very, very fast and then perform despite a lack of experience.
“So, it has been a whirlwind. I could never have predicted my life would turn out this way, but I’m incredibly grateful and I’ve loved every second of it.”
Winter Olympics: An exorcist couldn't cure Jadin O'Brien but now she's an Olympic bobsledder
Two German sleds took gold and silver medals.
The U.S. team of Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Jasmine Jones, also a track athlete, climbed from fourth to a bronze medal in the final fun for a cumulative time of 3:49.21.
It was the second medal in Italy for Humphries, 40, who also took bronze in monobob. She tied Meyers Taylor and speedskater Bonnie Blair with a sixth career medal, three representing Canada and three for the United States.
Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill, both former UNLV sprinters, were fifth in 3:49.71. Time for Meyers Taylor and O’Brien was 3:50.49.
Meyers Taylor/O’Brien were fifth after Friday's first run but dropped to 12th overall after their second run was 21st. They moved up to seventh after Saturday’s two runs.
O’Brien, 23, of Pewaukee, Wis., was a three-time NCAA champion for Notre Dame in the indoor pentathlon. Her transition to bobsled nearly slid off course when she crashed in January training in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The front axle came off the sled, losing all control.
The Olympic dream could have ended there.
Instead, they raced four days later.
“It was not easy getting back on the line to race in St. Moritz after that,” O’Brien told AP. “We were both very, very beat up. I decided to put my body on the line for E because I felt that I had the best chance of getting her a top-10 finish.
“And I said, ‘You know what? Regardless of this helps or hurts me when it comes to Olympic decision-making, who’s on the team, I’m not going to let a regret linger in my mind.’ And so, I chose to compete.”
Yet the most perilous part of O’Brien’s Olympic journey was overcoming an illness known as PANDAS -- Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.
It is a rare condition in which children develop neuropsychiatric symptoms – obsessive-compulsive disorder, tics, depression, sleep disturbances, sensory problems -- following a streptococcal infection. Commonly known as strep, the infection affects the throat and tonsils but can cause complications.
Her symptoms worsened from the ages of 5 to 10, until her parents found a doctor willing to put their daughter through holistic treatments.
O'Brien said she doesn’t often dwell on that period of her life because she doesn’t know what might surface.
“I think if I actually unpacked what happened and then kind of look at it and see how it’s affected my life now, I’d find some interesting things,” she said. “But I guess I look at it now like what good has come from it.
“I would say the resilience part, the story, being a witness, being a hope for people.”
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter : @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jadin O'Brien, former Notre Dame heptathlete, finishes 7th in Olympic bobsled
Continue reading...
O’Brien, a Notre Dame graduate who was aiming to make the Olympics in track and field, teamed with Elena Meyers Taylor at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Standings were determined by two runs Friday and two Saturday.
It was an Instagram DM from Meyers Taylor, a five-time Olympian, that encouraged O’Brien to try out for bobsled. O’Brien thought it was a joke.
It was not.
So two days after finishing fifth in the heptathlon in the USA Championships in August 2025, she traveled to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a bobsled tryout.
She was teamed with Meyers Taylor, then did well enough in the lead-up to the Olympics to be chosen to Team USA. O'Brien became the push athlete for the 41-year-old Meyers Taylor, who won monobob in Italy for a sixth Olympic medal, equaling the most ever by an American woman.
“It has really been a roller-coaster of events,” O’Brien told The Associated Press. “Everything’s happened so fast, but ... I’ve kind of been conditioned to be able to handle new things very, very fast and then perform despite a lack of experience.
“So, it has been a whirlwind. I could never have predicted my life would turn out this way, but I’m incredibly grateful and I’ve loved every second of it.”
Winter Olympics: An exorcist couldn't cure Jadin O'Brien but now she's an Olympic bobsledder
Two German sleds took gold and silver medals.
The U.S. team of Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Jasmine Jones, also a track athlete, climbed from fourth to a bronze medal in the final fun for a cumulative time of 3:49.21.
It was the second medal in Italy for Humphries, 40, who also took bronze in monobob. She tied Meyers Taylor and speedskater Bonnie Blair with a sixth career medal, three representing Canada and three for the United States.
Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill, both former UNLV sprinters, were fifth in 3:49.71. Time for Meyers Taylor and O’Brien was 3:50.49.
Meyers Taylor/O’Brien were fifth after Friday's first run but dropped to 12th overall after their second run was 21st. They moved up to seventh after Saturday’s two runs.
O’Brien, 23, of Pewaukee, Wis., was a three-time NCAA champion for Notre Dame in the indoor pentathlon. Her transition to bobsled nearly slid off course when she crashed in January training in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The front axle came off the sled, losing all control.
The Olympic dream could have ended there.
Instead, they raced four days later.
“It was not easy getting back on the line to race in St. Moritz after that,” O’Brien told AP. “We were both very, very beat up. I decided to put my body on the line for E because I felt that I had the best chance of getting her a top-10 finish.
“And I said, ‘You know what? Regardless of this helps or hurts me when it comes to Olympic decision-making, who’s on the team, I’m not going to let a regret linger in my mind.’ And so, I chose to compete.”
Yet the most perilous part of O’Brien’s Olympic journey was overcoming an illness known as PANDAS -- Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.
It is a rare condition in which children develop neuropsychiatric symptoms – obsessive-compulsive disorder, tics, depression, sleep disturbances, sensory problems -- following a streptococcal infection. Commonly known as strep, the infection affects the throat and tonsils but can cause complications.
Her symptoms worsened from the ages of 5 to 10, until her parents found a doctor willing to put their daughter through holistic treatments.
O'Brien said she doesn’t often dwell on that period of her life because she doesn’t know what might surface.
“I think if I actually unpacked what happened and then kind of look at it and see how it’s affected my life now, I’d find some interesting things,” she said. “But I guess I look at it now like what good has come from it.
“I would say the resilience part, the story, being a witness, being a hope for people.”
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter : @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jadin O'Brien, former Notre Dame heptathlete, finishes 7th in Olympic bobsled
Continue reading...
