The first time U.S. bobsledder Azaria Hill raced down the famed track located in Lake Placid, New York, she thought it “wasn’t that bad.” But there was one small issue with her line of thinking.
That run began from the non-Olympic starting point.
“On the second run, (pilot Kaysha Love and I) went down from start one,” she began with a laugh. “I was like, 'okay, this is a different feeling. Wow this an acquired taste, Kaysha, I don’t know about this.”
But when she arrived back at the newly refurbished start house marking the beginning of the 1.45-kilometer (.904-mile) track, all the veterans assured her that their reactions were almost identical to hers the first time they braved the course.
That’s what permanently sold her on bobsledding as a career.
Sports were not an abnormality in Hill’s house growing up, but the idea of being a bobsledder was. She belongs to a family of three Summer Olympians. She’s the daughter of three-time Olympic medalist Denean Howard-Hill, who won gold and set the American record in the women’s 4x400-meter relay during the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games alongside Florence Griffith-Joyner. That makes Howard-Hill's sister, Sherri Howard, Hill’s aunt. Together, the sisters won gold in the women’s 4x400m relay final at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games with Denean running in the preliminaries and Sherri in the final. Their roles reversed for the 1988 Games.
Additionally, her father is Virgil Hill Sr., who secured a silver medal in boxing before having a hall-of-fame professional boxing career. Hill’s mother and father met during the 1984 Games.
Still, Azaria, says her parents didn’t pressure her or her brother, who played in the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor-league system, into sports. Rather, the 26-year-old's love for them grew organically – the same way an average kid finds their love of sport.
“They never forced me or my brother and sister to do sports,” Hill said. “We had to legitimately come to them and say, ‘Okay, mom, dad, we want to do sports. We want to do this.
“I just knew ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to do track. I wanted to be like my mom and aunt because they were both in the Olympics.”
Hill was a four-year letter winner at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, California. While there, she became a three-time defending Foothill League champion in the 100-meter, 200m and 4x100m relay. Those accolades helped her earn a track scholarship to Long Beach State University in her home state of California. As a sophomore, she qualified for the NCAA championships as part of the 4x100m relay team and was named an Honorable Mention All-American. She backed up her performances the following year as a junior and was named a 2019 All Big West Performer in the 200m. It appeared as if she was on the same path as her mother and aunt. However, her senior year was anything but normal.
Hill’s senior year fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected several high school, collegiate, and professional sports seasons globally. The NCAA made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 track & field season entirely, leaving her with a decision that changed the course of her sporting career forever.
“I had a red shirt and an extra year,” Hill began. “So, I could have gone back to (Long Beach State). But part of me knew that I had more to give.”
So, Hill took the risk and jumped into the newly created transfer portal, hoping that a change in colleges would spark a new fire. After doing some research, she landed at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada. She studied the speedy times of her soon-to-be teammates and knew they would push her into making herself better and more competitive. Although, there was some pushback from some of her family members regarding the move.
“Funny enough, a lot of my family was not on board with me going to UNLV,” Hill reflected. “They were like, ‘Why would you move somewhere completely different? You already are at this school. You have a scholarship. They kind of looked at me a little crazy.”
Still, Hill wanted to take the risk, and knew she had a special person in her corner who knew a thing or two about overcoming major obstacles – her mother. Howard-Hill was one of the athletes on the historic 1980 U.S. Olympic team that led a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia, to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. If anyone was qualified to give advice about overcoming an unforeseen obstacle, it was her.
“Throughout my whole track career, she’s always been there,” Hill smiled. “She’s always helped me through difficult obstacles and stuff.”
Hill not only posted a personal record on the track as a UNLV Rebel but also met her soon-to-be bobsled pilot, Kaysha Love. They were a part of the same relay team at UNLV before becoming a two-woman bobsled team was even a thought. As the track season (and Hill and Love’s college sports eligibility) ended, Love began pursuing bobsled. Meanwhile, Hill kept trying to find her “fix within the regular world,” while keeping an eye on her friend’s rookie season in a sport that was brand new to her.
The interest and fun Hill saw Love having led to Love recruiting Hill to try bobsled. Though apprehensive at first, Hill dreamt of finding her sport “fix.” She took a risk and attended a rookie camp, where she impressed coaches with her explosiveness, and earned an offer to participate in a performance camp. Soon after, the other pieces of the puzzle began falling into place.
Although the sports appear wildly different at face value, bobsled utilizes elements of track & field, particularly at the starting line. The push start at the apex of a run is often the most important part of the race, and the start of a track race uses similar techniques and muscle work. That is why USA Bobsled and Skeleton (USABS) have been a leading force in recruiting former NCAA track athletes, hoping they can contend against Central European countries like Germany who have dominated the sport for years. Unbeknownst to USABS at the time, they also became a leading force in the inclusion of Black athletes at the Olympic Winter Games.
The recruitment of former track athletes into bobsled opened a new door for Black American athletes to become Winter Olympians. Bobsled has been a part of the Winter Olympic Games program since its first iteration in 1924. However, the first Black Americans to compete in a Winter Olympic Games, Willie Davenport and Jeff Gadley, competed in bobsled as part of the four-man team just 45 years ago at Lake Placid in 1980. Not so coincidentally, both Davenport and Gladley were former track athletes.
Fast forward to 2025, where “Team Love,” which often features Hill as the brakewoman of the two-man sled, is hoping to keep the legacy of Black athletes in bobsledding alive and well. To this day, Hill credits her friend and former track teammate for making the sport accessible to her.
“She’s made bobsled and coming in so much fun,” Hill smiled when talking about Love. “When I first got there, we pushed together, and it just felt right.
“She's really helped me out a lot, from the training to just giving me advice, helping me learn the ropes. You come (into bobsled) almost flooded with all. You have to flip the sled, move the sled, all this terminology. It is very much a blue-collar sport. So, she does a very good job at breaking things down.”
I’m paving the way for someone else just like Elana (Meyers Taylor) did for us.
Of course, Love and Hill were initially inspired by other legendary Black bobsledders preceding them. A few examples include Lauryn Williams – the first American (and one of seven total international sports athletes) to win a medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, Vonetta Flowers – the first Black athlete from any country to win gold at an Olympic Winter Games and Elana Meyers Taylor – the most decorated Black Olympic winter sports athlete and bobsledder of all time. Williams and Flowers were also former track athletes, while Meyers Taylor played softball before finding bobsled. Even more impressive, Meyers Taylor is still competing in 2025 at the age of 40. She recently won her first race since giving birth to her second child.
“I think she’s very influential,” Hill said of Meyers Taylor. “She advocates not only for Black athletes but for athletes in the sport in general.
“It’s always good to have a perspective from somebody who’s been in the sport for so long – someone who has been a brakeman and is a pilot...You look at Elana and you say, ‘Dang! She can do this? I can do this too. So that’s really cool.”
Although the selection process for the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team is convoluted, Hill is in contention to be selected as a brakewoman for the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. If that happens, her pilot would most likely be Love, who is in contention for being named as a pilot for both the monobob and two-person disciplines. Hill spoke on the impact she feels she would make if she achieved her dream of becoming the fourth Olympian in her family as a part of “Team Love.”
“I think it could be very influential, especially for younger athletes,” she began. “They can look and see, just like I did, like ‘Dang. I can do this too! Even if track or whatever sport doesn’t work out, I have another option – a different sport in a different season.”
Hill continued more specifically on touching remarks she sees and hears on the starting line before sliding with Love, who brings a unique style and personality to her piloting. Before a run, the duo executes a pre-run handshake, the “Team Love snap,” which ends with the athletes striking a model-like pose.
“Kaysha has her signature snap,” Hill said. “So, before we slide, we do our little handshake and then the snap. So, sometimes, we’ll see on the sides that people do the snap with us.
“You’ll also see the really young girls go, “Mommy! Look at her pink handlebar! Look at her pink sled!’ because their favorite color is pink. It reminds me that I’m really making a difference.
“I’m paving the way for someone else just like Elana (Meyers Taylor) did for us.”
When asked about the increase in Black athlete representation in bobsled, Hill mentioned that it was “refreshing” to see the diversity growing not just on the U.S. team but other countries as well.
“Bobsled can be a new sport for Black athletes,” Hill said. “We have a few on our team already on both the men’s and women’s side, and even on other teams too. It’s just nice to see that diversity.
“It just goes to show you that other people are hopping on board and trying out these new sports and doing it.”
Hill mentioned that in one World Cup stop, there was a monobob athlete representing Nigeria. The country became the first nation from the continent of Africa to compete in bobsled during the Winter Olympic Games in 2018.
There is no better time to see the “Team Love snap” before Milan-Cortina 2026 than this March, when Lake Placid hosts IBSF World Championships for the first time in 13 years. Before getting back to training, Hill had one final message for those like her who would have never believed bobsled could be their calling for a career in professional sports.
“Don’t be afraid to take a risk,” she smiled. “And take pride in your work ethic. Your work ethic is everything.”
