A new multi-year endorsement deal between USA Bobsled and Skeleton and American Honda will include testing, research and development at central Ohio Honda facilities.
The deal will give the sliding sports federation financial and technical support going into both next winter’s Milan-Cortina Olympics and the 2030 Games in the French Alps.
The deal, announced earlier this week, has been in the works for some time. Honda — which becomes the official premier technology partner of the teams — will give USA Bobsled and Skeleton, among other things, access to its wind tunnel in Ohio for research and development purposes.
Initial testing is already underway at the Honda Automotive Laboratories of Ohio, a state-of-the-art aeroacoustic wind tunnel located in East Liberty.
Opened in 2022, HALO offers world-class aerodynamic capabilities and will be central to evaluating airflow dynamics, sled design and athlete positioning, according to Honda officials.
“This data will help ensure that USABS athletes and their equipment are primed for peak performance in national and international competition,” notes a press release from Honda.
Such access is crucial when determining optimal sled positioning and other aerodynamic factors in sports where one-hundredth of a second can be the difference between winning and losing. Eventually, the partnership will evolve into sled design as well.
“Long term, they’ll be playing a role in helping us design bobsleds,” said USABS CEO Aron McGuire. “We’ll be looking at building four-man sleds initially. They will be providing the aerodynamic expertise and providing us insights, recommendations, into how we can best design a sled as it relates to other factors, like safety of the athletes sitting in the sled and the performance side of the design.”
The teams will also have Acura logos on their sleds for all competitions through the 2030 Games.
“In sports where sleds can reach speeds of over 90 miles per hour and the difference between first and last can be measured in fractions of a second, our Honda engineers are eager to apply their engineering skills and racing background to the USABS programs,” said Larry Geise, the executive vice president of Honda Development and Manufacturing of America.
Financial specifics were not disclosed, but the deal is one of the more significant in USABS history.
“It’s at the top of the cash partners that we’ve had,” McGuire said.
The news comes at a key time for the programs, with the next Olympics just seven months away.
The United States has legitimate medal hopes in bobsled and skeleton going into Milan-Cortina; Kaysha Love is the reigning women’s monobob champion, women’s pilots Kaillie Humphries Armbruster and Elana Meyers Taylor are the two most decorated female drivers in Olympic history, and the American duo of Austin Florian and Mystique Ro won a gold medal in the new mixed team skeleton discipline at the world championships earlier this year.
“We are thrilled to welcome Honda to the USABS family, and we are grateful for the support of their U.S. engineers,” said Chris Fogt, head coach of the USA Bobsled Team. “Honda is a known leader in the racing world. We are already seeing how Honda will apply its resources and technologies to advance
the training and performance of USABS and can’t wait to see the results.”
