Hempfield alum Jasmine Jones is an Olympian.
The former track and field standout, who also ran at Eastern Michigan, was selected Monday for the 2026 U.S. Olympic bobsled and skeleton team that will compete in Cortina, Italy.
The Winter Games begin Feb. 6.
“It feels surreal,” Jones said. “All of the hard work, dedication, and pure training I put in came together to make this team. The job’s not done just yet, but I’m ready for what’s to come.”
Jones, who lives in Lake Placid, N.Y., will be with the team in Ingla Austria for holding camp. The team will head to Italy early next month.
Jones, 29, is the second Hempfield alum to reach the world stage. Bridget (Guy) Williams competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in the pole vault.
Another Westmoreland star, wrestler Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional) also competed in ’24 in Paris, bringing home a silver medal.
Congratulations to Hempfield Area graduate Jasmine Jones for being selected to represent Team USA in Women’s Bobsled at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy! pic.twitter.com/iReTUGpZVv
— Hempfield Area Athletic Department (@hasd_athletics) January 19, 2026
Jones said previously she was excited to compete on the big stage.
Jones’ sport is as different as the climate for the next Olympics.
She will be the push athlete (backseat) with pilot Kallie Armbruster Humphries in the two-woman bobsled.
Jones and Humphries took first place in World Cup event in St. Moritz, Switzerland — on the only natural-ice bobsled track in the world — to all but seal their spot on the U.S. team.
”I had a feeling I would be named based off of performance over the season,” Jones said. “But, hearing it in that moment made it real and official. I just felt stunned that I actually did it: I made my first Olympic team.”
The announcement comes about two months after Jones competed in the World Cup season, in which the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation follows the progress of potential Olympic performers.
Jones was a terrific track and field athlete in high school and college. Her qualities as a team player were evident from the start.
At Eastern Michigan, she ran a leg of a Mid-American Conference champion 400-meter relay, earning the MAC’s most outstanding performer for the indoor season after winning the 200- and 400-meter dashes.
At Hempfield, she won WPIAL Class 3A titles in the 200 and 400.
Track and bobsledding are linked by their competitors. Teams use a running start before launching onto a frozen, downhill twisting track and reaching speeds up to 90 mph.
Another former WPIAL track star, Lauryn Williams (Rochester), and well-known hurdler Lolo Jones are other notable speedsters who made their mark on the bobsled scene.
Williams won a silver medal in the two-woman bobsled at the 2014 game in Sochi. She also earned silver at the 2004 Athens Games.
