Kaillie Humphries Goes for Gold in Monobob's Closing Runs

Kaillie Humphries Goes for Gold in Monobob's Closing Runs

Most bobsledders approached their few valuable coaching runs on China’s snow dragon as in the event that they had been school college students cramming for a midterm, attempting to be taught as a lot as doable in a short while body earlier than the large take a look at.

Kaillie Humphries of america was the one athlete among the many area of 20 who skipped the ultimate monobob coaching heats on Saturday on the Nationwide Sliding Heart. She had the monitor — its nuances and tendencies — memorized.

On Monday, she is going to attempt to show that her instincts had been right within the inaugural monobob occasion, by which one feminine athlete pushes and pilots her sled down the icy monitor.

If she wins, it should pause Germany’s run of golds in sliding sports activities on the Beijing Video games. The nation collected golds in all six of the earlier sliding competitions.

Humphries, 36, would additionally tie the benchmark established by the snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis earlier in Beijing because the oldest American lady to medal on the Winter Olympics.

That is Humphries’s first Olympics representing america after an acrimonious break up from Bobsleigh Canada, a program she had lifted to new heights and represented at three earlier Olympics.

After successful a bronze medal in 2018, Humphries filed a proper criticism of psychological and verbal abuse towards Todd Hays, a coach for Bobsleigh Canada. She requested to be launched from this system, initiating a protracted standoff.

Different international locations recruited Humphries with the provide of quick citizenship to compete in Beijing underneath their flag. Humphries as an alternative waited out the prolonged course of it took to change into a U.S. citizen with no assurances that she could be granted a passport with sufficient time to compete at these Video games.

“I’m changing into an American,” Humphries mentioned earlier than the Olympics. “Reminding myself of that made it a lot greater and rather more grand. On the finish of the day, the Olympics is a race. It’s what I work for, nevertheless it’s not part of who I’m, and changing into an American may be very a lot part of who I’m.”

She grew to become one in December, permitting simply sufficient of a window to qualify for the Winter Video games.

“This has been a really arduous fought battle to get right here, and it undoubtedly feels totally different,” she mentioned.

Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, pals and rivals, have traded wins and locations on the World Cup circuit for greater than a decade. Meyers Taylor has collected two silvers and a bronze in previous Olympics.

Meyers Taylor, 37, was named a flag-bearer for america earlier than she examined constructive for the coronavirus shortly after arriving in Beijing. She made it out of quarantine in time to compete within the race.

“We’ve shared the rostrum since 2010 collectively,” Humphries mentioned. “And we have now this battle royale the place I push her and she or he pushes me to be higher. And it all the time labored.”

The I.O.C. introduced monobob’s Olympic inclusion in 2018, however just for ladies. Males are nonetheless the one opponents within the four-man bobsled occasion.

“What I might like to see in our sport is that males get the chance to do monobob and that ladies get the chance to do four-man, and our sport grows and truly turns into very equal,” Humphries mentioned.

Humphries and Meyers Taylor may have one other alternative so as to add to their medal totals. The 2-woman bobsled occasion begins on Friday.

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