Hoffman retains National Champion title in first day of 2021 USA Bobsled Push Championships

Lake Placid, N.Y. (July 30, 2021) – Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas) and Frank Del Duca (Bethel, Me.) kicked off the 2021-2022 season with wins in their respective USA Bobsled Push Championship races this morning in Lake Placid’s new state-of-the-art Ice House facility. The competition, presented by Mananalu Water, is one in a series of qualifying events to earn a spot on the national team. 

Athletes competed in two heats with an optional third heat. The best two times were combined to determine the winner.

Hoffman was crowned the 2021 USA Women’s Bobsled Push Champion with a two-run combined time of 11.21 seconds after clocking starts of 5.61 and 5.60 seconds. Her second run time set an Ice House record!

“I feel really good and this feels amazing,” Hoffman said. “I wanted to come out and lay down the times that I did and I was so happy to set the track record.”

Hoffman is making a bid for her first Olympic Team nomination. She was recruited after competing in Team USA’s The Next Olympic Hopeful, and the former LSU-Shreveport basketball player made the women’s bobsled team in her rookie season. Almost four years later, she’s vying for an Olympic spot. 

Two-woman bobsled combinations announced for 2021 World Championships

ALTENBERG, Germany (Feb. 1, 2020) – The 2021 World Championships kick off this weekend with the two-woman bobsled competition on Friday and Saturday in Altenberg, Germany. The winner will be determined by the team with the lowest four-run combined time held over the two days of racing.

The U.S. announced today the driver and push athlete combinations for its two sled entries. Elana Meyers Taylor (Douglasville, Ga.) has claimed three medals in the four World Cup races she’s entered this season. She’ll be racing with Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas), who earned two medals with Meyers Taylor this season. Kaillie Humphries (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Lolo Jones (Des Moines, Iowa), who are just coming off a World Cup win in Igls, Austria, will be racing together again this weekend. Humphries is the defending 2020 world champion. Fans can watch the races on NBCSN, OlympicChannel.com, and the Olympic Channel.

Hoffman and Meyers Taylor secure bronze in Two-Woman Bobsled Koenigssee World Cup

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (January 24, 2020) – Elana Meyers Taylor (Douglasville, Ga.) and Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas) secured the bronze medal in today’s two-woman bobsled World Cup in Koenigssee. 

Hoffman and Meyers Taylor started their campaign for the medals with the fastest start time of 5.21 seconds. Meyers Taylor navigated the BMW-branded sled to the finish in 51 seconds, just three-hundredths of a second behind first heat leaders Stephanie Schneider and Tamara Seer from Germany.

Hoffman and Meyers Taylor were even faster off the block in the second heat with a push time of 5.20 seconds. Meyers Taylor took the reins and struggled through the S-combination corners of the track. The U.S. team crossed the finish line in 51.17 seconds and waited to see how their combined time of 1:42.17 would hold up.

Kim Kalicki and Ann-Christin Strack from Germany threw down the fastest run of the day to take over the lead with a total time of 1:41.71. Schneider and Seer fell back into silver medal position with a cumulative time of 1:41.96. Hoffman and Meyers Taylor secured the bronze medal for Team USA.

Hoffman and Meyers Taylor take silver medal in women’s bobsled World Cup

ST. MORITZ, SWITZLAND (January 17, 2021) Texan Sylvia Hoffman, along with teammate Elana Meyers Taylor, established a new St. Moritz start record en route to the silver medal in this morning’s women’s bobsled World Cup race. Hoffman, who calls Arlington, Texas her home, manned the brakes with Hoffman driving the two-person sled.

The duo powered the BMW-branded sled off the block with the fastest start time (5.44 seconds), with Meyers Taylor navigated the track to the finish with the time of 1:08.56, good enough for fourth place. Meyers Taylor and Hoffman were third off the start in the opening heat, which is a disadvantage on the all-natural track. The track speeds up throughout the day, making a later draw more desirable. 

 Hoffman stated, in a prepared press release from USA Bobsled & Skeleton:

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Meyers Taylor and Hoffman laid it all on the line in run two, breaking the start record in the second heat with a push time of 5.42 seconds. Meyers Taylor threaded together a nearly flawless run of 1:08.06 to temporarily hold the track record. Meyers Taylor and Hoffman secured the silver medal with a combined time of 2:16.62, a mere 0.08 seconds from the Germans.

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By Robert H Kelly of TexSport Publications. Tap here for the full coverage. 

Hoffman and Humphries win women’s bobsled World Cup in Koenigssee

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (Jan. 25, 2020)– Kaillie Humphries (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas) were victorious in this morning’s women’s bobsled World Cup in Koenigssee. Today’s victory was Hoffman’s first career World Cup gold medal. She’s earned two World Cup bronze medals before today– one with Elana Meyers Taylor and one with Humphries last weekend in Igls.

Hoffman earns first World Cup medal in Europe this season with Humphries in Igls

IGLS, Austria (Jan. 18, 2020)– Kaillie Humphries (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Sylvia Hoffman (Arlington, Texas) claimed the bronze medal in this morning’s women’s bobsled World Cup race in Igls. Hoffman and Humphries powered the Omaze branded sled off the block in 5.57 seconds in the first heat, and Humphries navigated to the finish in 53.69 seconds for second position. 

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Snow added an additional challenge to the second heat as the precipitation picked up for the final runs. Nolte and Nolte threaded together a nearly perfect second run of 53.71 seconds for a combined time of 1:47.53 to put pressure on the field. Schneider made a major driving mistake in her second run and fell back three spots into fifth. Hoffman and Humphries responded with a second run push time of 5.60 and downtime of 53.87 for a total of 1:47.56. The Americans were 0.03 seconds shy of taking over Nolte and Nolte, but it was enough for the bronze medal.

Sylvia Hoffman and Elana Meyers-Taylor team up for Bronze in Two-Woman Bobsled

IGLS, Austria (Jan 19, 2019)- Meyers Taylor paired up with Sylvia Hoffmann to take bronze behind two German pairs in two-woman bobsled. It was the first world cup medal for Hoffman, a finalist on “Next Olympic Hopeful.” Taylor- "“It’s a great result for Sylvia, it’s her first World Cup medal and she performed really well today"

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Illness that limited Meyers Taylor’s  training time to two runs this week in Austria didn’t deter her and Hoffman, who sat atop the leaderboard after a blistering 53.04-second first heat, with the two German teams within .06 seconds. The Americans then turned in a time of 53.19, which was the third-best time of the second run, giving the duo a combined time of 1:46.23. That dropped them to third behind winners Stephanie Schneider and Ann-Christin Strack, who finished with a combined time of 1:46.06. Mariama Jamanka, who won the 2018 Olympic gold with Lisa Buckwitz, and Kira Lipperheide recorded 1:46.17 for silver.