A field of 25 sleds will take part in the two-woman bobsled final at Milano Cortina 2026.
We take a look at the history of the two-women's bobsled event, how it works, and who will be aiming for gold in four runs over the next two days.
Schedule
Qualification for the two-woman bobsled final was achieved through each team's performance in the seven World Cup events that were held during the qualifying period.
In total, 14 nations will be represented in the final, with three nations (Germany, United States and Canada) able to enter three sleds in Milan-Cortina, while five nations (Switzerland, China, Italy, Australia and Austria) will field two teams each and a further six countries (France, South Korea, Great Britain, Poland, Slovakia and Chinese Taipei) will each be represented by one two-woman team.
The final of the two-woman bobsled will be held across two days, with the first two runs taking place on Friday February 20 and the final two runs on Saturday February 21.
The event starts at 12:00 ET (18:00 local time) on Friday and an hour later at 13:00 ET (19:00 local time) on Saturday.
Venue
The bobsled events at Milano Cortina 2026 are being held at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Veneto, Italy, in the southern Dolomite Alps.
History of the two-woman bobsled
Bobsled has been a feature of the Winter Olympics programme since the first Winter Games in 1924 and has been included in every edition since, apart from 1960.
The initial event was a four-man competition, with a two-man bob added in 1932.
A women's event was first held at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, when the host nation of the United Stakes took gold through Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers.
The following five two-woman events have been shared between Germany (three wins) and Canada (two wins), although US competitors have regularly featured on the podium with three silver medals and three bronze medals.
How it works
Teams make four runs down a tube of ice, hurtling towards the finish using the momentum built up from their push start and aided by gravity.
Modern tracks are made of concrete and coated with ice. They must have at least one straight section and one 'labyrinth' consisting of three turns in quick succession. Tracks measure 1,200 to 1,300 metres long and should have at least 15 turns.
Speeds can exceed 75 mph and crews can feel G-forces of up to 5g on some turns.
The team with the fastest aggregate time after four runs wins.
Team USA Medal prospects
The United States won the women's monobob event at Milan-Cortina and will be hunting more medals in the two-women event.
The six USA and Germany teams fill the first six places in the betting but the top two favorites are from the European nation.
The combination of Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi are the -250 odds market leaders with Lisa Buckwitz and Neele Schuten next best at +300.
The United States' best hopes lie with Kaillee Humphries, who took the bronze medal in the one-woman event behind gold-medalist Elana Meyers Taylor and runner-up Nolte.
Humphries (+650) teams up with brakewoman Jasmine Jones, having previously won two golds in the event for Canada in 2010 and 2014 and a bronze in 2018.
Having switched nationalities in 2019, she won the monobob event in the 2022 Games, becoming the first woman to win gold for two different nations.
Former track athlete Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill form the second American partnership and are fourth favorites overall at +1400. Love won gold in the 2025 monobob World Championship but was only seventh in that event at these Games.
The third America crew is led by Elana Meyers Taylor, who has won two silvers and a bronze in this event at the last three Games, when partnered by Lauryn Williams, Lauren Gibbs and Sylvia Hoffman. This year she has another new brakewoman with Jadin O'Brien in the second seat.
Nolte is the understandable favorite having won five of the seven two-woman events in the World Cup this season, but Humphries took the win in the other two events, in Latvia and at St Moritz in Switzerland, and should put up a bold challenge for another Olympic medal.
Read more betting picks and predictions for the Olympics on site.
Two-woman Bobsled Final Odds
Laura Nolte (Germany) | -250 |
Lisa Buckwitz (Germany) | +300 |
Kaillee Armbruster Humphries (United States) | +650 |
Kaysha Love (United States) | +1400 |
Kim Kalicki (Germany) | +1600 |
Elana Meyers Taylor (United States) | +2500 |
Melissa Lotholz (Canada) | +2500 |
Melanie Hasler (Switzerland) | +3000 |
Read the latest Olympics news on site.
This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.
