PARK CITY, Utah — Utahn Kaysha Love is a rising star with the USA bobsled team, but she still remembers her first time sliding down the track at the Utah Olympic Park four years ago.
"I forgot to breathe," said Love. "I was so nervous to actually go down this track. They didn't really give me a whole lot of notice of what to expect. They were just like: 'You are going to ride in this sliding position, here's crash protocol,'" Love recalled. "It was in that moment that I was like: 'Wait a minute, crash protocol? Like, there could be some crashing in this?' If you're not breathing, you're destined to pass out rather quickly."
Fast forward three years later, when she won her first World Cup race as a rookie driver this past December.
"It still hasn't even settled in that that happened in my first World Cup race," said Love.
She's always been a great athlete. Her Olympic dreams started at the age of four, as a gymnast. Then she gave track and field a shot when she was a freshman at Herriman High School. She went on to set multiple records before running track at UNLV, and that's when her Olympic dreams started to become a reality as she was recruited by the U.S. bobsled team in 2020.
"To be introduced once again to another avenue of potentially going to the Olympics through bobsled was just the greatest feeling ever, and I was willing to do anything to be able to try to make that Olympic dream happen, even if it meant I had to pass out in a bobsled to make it happen," said Love. "I was determined to try to go to the games."
And she did, competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a brakeman in the back of the two-man sled. But after a disappointing seventh-place finish, she decided to take the sled in her own hands as a pilot.
"Seventh place was definitely a very hard pill to swallow," said Love. "I think that Games was kind of the turning point that lit the fire under me to want to become a pilot."
Moving from the back to the front of the sled is a very hard transition, but she's had quick success. She's now the fastest female bobsled pilot in the world after a great World Cup season.
"It was so much fun," said Love. "We ended up walking away with two gold medals in monobob, with two start records and two track records, and then a bronze medal in two-man."
Her sights are now set on the 2026 Olympics in Italy, with the goal of competing in the 2034 Olympics at the historic track in Park City.
"This track is so empowering to women's bobsled," said Love. "This is where women's bobsled started. To circle back and to be able to race on this legendary track, and to be a part of history once again — we're coming Salt Lake, who hosted a fantastic games in 2002. Ten years from now, it seems a little crazy, but the simple fact that this is home, and to compete in front of family and friends is something that I'll push through. Utah has always been home, and I've always absolutely loved it here, and it's just been such a blessing to have a sport that's brought me back into the Utah community."
