Leonie Fiebig, a winner of 29 major international medals in either World Cup or world championship competitions, has left the powerhouse German women's bobsled team and will begin sliding for the U.S. this season.
Fiebig made the announcement Sunday, about a month before the start of this season's World Cup schedule. The news had been expected for several weeks, especially after Fiebig competed in USA Bobsled's annual push championships last month.
"It's official," Fiebig wrote in a social media post. "I'll be racing for TEAM USA from now on."
The 36-year-old Fiebig -- who attended college at Memphis -- will be eligible to compete in World Cup races, but it's still unclear if being part of the 2030 U.S. Olympic team will eventually be a possibility. She was not selected for the team that represented Germany at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February, prompting speculation at the time that her career with that federation was possibly ending.
It's the second major pickup for the U.S. women's program in recent weeks, after longtime Canadian pilot Kristen Bujnowski -- a winner of eight World Cup medals and two world championship medals -- announced she would be driving for the Americans as well. Bujnowski helped Canada get a fifth-place finish in the two-woman bobsled event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Fiebig is a push athlete who teamed with Kim Kalicki to win a two-woman world title for Germany in 2023. She also helped Germany win golds in nine other World Cup races.