(NEXSTAR) - The Olympic bobsled competition is a tradition that dates back to the first Winter Games in 1924. This year, the event features a lineup of veteran American athletes, including some of the most decorated competitors in the history of the sport. Bobsledding has been a part of the Winter Olympics since its inception in France, with its only absence occurring during the 1960 Games in California. This year's program includes four events: the men's four-person and two-person sleds, the women's two-person sled, and the women's monobob, which features a single athlete. Elana Meyers Taylor is entering her fifth Winter Games as the most decorated American female Olympic bobsledder in history. She has earned five career medals, including three silver and two bronze. Taylor is recognized as a leader for the American team heading into the competition in Italy. Fellow American Kaillie Humphries also enters the Games with a record of four career medals. Humphries previously won two gold medals and one bronze medal while competing for Team Canada. During the last Winter Olympics in Beijing, she won a gold medal in the monobob event representing the United States. The U.S. men's team features two qualified sleds for the two-man and four-man events. The teams are led by pilots Frankie del Duca and Kristopher Horn, who are both entering their second Olympic Games. Frankie del Duca piloted his sleds to a fourth-place finish at the most recent World Championships. Each bobsled competition at the Cortina Games consists of four runs completed over a two-day period. The final standings for each event are determined by calculating the aggregate time of all four runs. The athlete or team with the lowest total time is declared the winner. Bobsled competition is scheduled to begin Feb. 14 in Cortina, Italy. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published