_by_Sandro_Halank%25E2%2580%2593007-Kaillie_Humphries.jpg) Kaillie Humphries in Altenberg (2020) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Canadian, American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1985-09-04)September 4, 1985 (age 40)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 76 kg (168 lb)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Bobsleigh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Two-women, monobob | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Stefan Bosch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals |   | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Kaillie Humphries (néeSimundson; September 4, 1985) is a Canadian-Americanbobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the2010 and2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewomanPhylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was namedflagbearer for theOlympic closing ceremony with brakewomanHeather Moyse.
Humphries was one of the first women to pilot a mixed-gender team in a four-person bobsled competition.[2] She was also the first woman to drive an all-female team against men in a four-person World Cup bobsled race.[3][4]
In 2019, Humphries switched to representing the United States because of alleged abuse and harassment that she claims she faced from theCanadian bobsled federation. She won threeIBSF World Championship medals for Team USA in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, making her a five-time world champion and the most decorated woman in bobsled history. She also swept the two-woman and monobob events at the 2021 IBSF World Championships, making her the first female bobsledder to win a double world title.
Humphries was named to the U.S. bobsledding team for theBeijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, two months after she became a naturalized United States citizen, and won gold in themonobob event. This gold medal win meant she was the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals for two different countries (United States and Canada), and the first person to win Olympic gold medals for the United States and Canada,[5]
She was born inCalgary to parents Cheryl and Ray Simundson; he was a financial planner. At age 7, after handling the gold medal of an Olympic swimmer, she set a goal to win a gold medal herself. She took up ski racing and, at age 14, was named to the Canadian national development team. She attended theNational Sport School in Calgary.[6] She competed inalpine skiing until the age of 16, when she retired from the sport after breaking both legs in separate crashes.[7] In 2002, she began her bobsled career as a brakewoman and was an alternate to the Canadian team at the2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.[8]
Humphries was initially low on the Canadian depth chart and considered representing the United Kingdom, the country of her then-fiancé,Dan Humphries, to compete at the 2006 Olympics. Opting to remain with the Canadian team, she gained a spot on the roster after signing up for a bobsled driving school.[9]
She won the silver medal in the mixed bobsled-skeleton team event at the2008 FIBT World Championships inAltenberg, Germany. Following a seventh-place finish in the2008–09 Bobsleigh World Cup series, she finished second overall in the2009-10 series with one win, two other podium finishes, and never less than a top-six finish (in a field of 20) over eight races.[10]
At the2010 Winter Olympics, Humphries won the gold medal in thetwo-woman competition with brakewomanHeather Moyse. The silver medal was won by fellow CanadiansShelley-Ann Brown andHelen Upperton.[11] After the final run, Humphries said: "I don't think I can put it into words yet. We did our job, you know. The goal I set as a little kid, to have done it, is amazing."[9]
After the 2010 Olympics, Humphries met with less success for nearly two seasons. She finished on the podium only once during the2010–11 World Cup series, though her consistent top-10 finishes allowed her to finish in third place overall. She slid to fifth place overall in the2011–12 World Cup series, though she did have four podium finishes, including three gold medals.
Humphries teamed up with brakewomanEmily Baadsvik and then brakewomanJennifer Ciochetti for consecutive wins in the last two races of the 2011–12 World Cup. Humphries and Ciochetti also won the2012 World Championship race inLake Placid, marking the first gold for a Canadian women's bobsled team at the World Championships. When asked what the result meant on top of her Olympic gold, she said: "It feels amazing. It is another goal accomplished. This means a lot to me. I feel like I'm still growing as a pilot, and I try to learn from every experience. I have been working on my consistency, and I'm glad it showed here."[12] In the team event, Humphries helped guide the Canadians to a bronze medal.[13]
These three gold medals started a winning streak that would eventually break records for woman's bobsled competition.[14]
Humphries, with new brakewomanChelsea Valois, was the dominant pilot during the2012–13 Bobsleigh World Cup season. The pair finished on the podium inall nine races that season, including a historic five straight wins from the start of the season.[14] They won theoverall season championship with a record 1,960 points on six gold, one silver, and two bronze medal finishes.
Humphries' success in the winter of 2012–13 included a repeat as world champion while setting a track record at the2013 FIBT World Championship race inSt. Moritz.[15] She finished on the podium in all 10 FIBT races during the 2012–13 season, and extended her consecutive FIBT podium finishes to 13 when counting the last two races of the2011–12 World Cup season plus the2012 FIBT World Championship race.[14] This streak included a run of eight consecutive wins from the end of 2011–12 through the start of 2012–13, while teamed with three different brakewomen (Baadsvik for one win, Ciochetti for two wins, and Valois for the rest).[16]
The2013–14 World Cup season saw Humphries reunited with her Vancouver 2010 teammate, Heather Moyse. Humphries extended her podium streak to 15 with a win in the first race of the season and a silver in the second race—an unbroken run of 11 gold medals, 2 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals from the end of 2011–12 through the start of 2013–14. She traded podium positions with the American team of pilotElana Meyers and brakewomanLauryn Williams throughout the 2013–14 season and ultimately won her second consecutive World Cup season title.
The close contest between the Canadians and Americans carried into the2014 Sochi Olympics. Meyers and Williams led by just over two-tenths of a second after Day 1 of competition—uncharacteristically beating Humphries and Moyse at their strong suit start times, though Humphries made fewer driving errors and produced cleaner runs. On the second day of competition, the Americans again won on starting pushes but made several driving errors on the technical course. Humphries' clean piloting propelled the Canadians from second place into the gold medal position, making them the first female bobsled team to repeat as Olympic champions and the first female Canadian Olympians to repeat as champions since speed skaterCatriona Le May Doan. Humphries said of the achievement: "How do you describe achieving a dream? This is a four-year goal of ours. This has been something that we've done together. Winning gold is amazing, but walking away satisfied is better. After the third run, I knew that if we did the business, we could be on top."[17][18]
Humphries received the 2014Lou Marsh Award, given annually to Canada's top athlete.[19]
After theFédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing announced that it would allow mixed-gender crews to compete in four-man bobsled, Humphries piloted a mixed-gender team to the bronze medal in the Canadian four-man bobsled championships on November 1, 2014, allowing her team to join crews led byJustin Kripps andChris Spring as official Canadian entries on the international circuit.[20][21]
On November 15, Humphries andElana Meyers of the United States became the first women to compete with or against men in an international four-man bobsled competition, in the season-opening North American Cup race inPark City, Utah.[2] Humphries piloted her mixed-gender sled to a sixth-place finish, while Meyers piloted hers to seventh.[2][22][23] Later the same month, Humphries and Meyers became the first women to win medals in international four-man bobsled competition when they finished second and third in a North American Cup race at theCalgary track.[24]
On January 9, 2016, Humphries became the first woman to drive an all-female team against men in a four-person World Cup bobsled race; her teammates wereCynthia Appiah, Geneviève Thibault, andMelissa Lotholz.[3][4] Although they finished last, Humphries said the purpose was to help get a four-woman bobsled division added to the Olympics.[3] She said she knew their entry would not be a contender due to the 300-pound weight difference between her team and the all-men teams.[4]
In 2018, Humphries filed harassment complaints againstBobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) head coachTodd Hays, high-performance directorChris Le Bihan, and president Sarah Storey. She petitioned to be freed from the Canadian team—as required by theInternational Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, though she had no contractual obligations to BCS—in order to compete for the United States. BCS refused to release her for competitive reasons, which led to a lawsuit and a filing with the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC).[25]
An independent investigation by Hill Advisory Inc., which BCS hired, concluded in September 2019 that there was insufficient evidence to convict Hays, Le Bihan, or Storey.[26] In September 2019, BCS granted Humphries' request to be released from the Canadian program, and she began to compete for the United States.[27]
On July 15, 2021, Humphries received a decision from an SDRCC arbitrator, Robert P. Armstrong, with respect to her appeal of the investigation conducted by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. Armstrong rejected the Hill investigation and instead ordered an independent investigation through the SDRCC. He concluded “that the investigation of Mr. Hill was neither thorough nor reasonable. As a result, the decision of the board of BCS to accept the report cannot stand. ... Mr. Hill simply makes conclusive statements without any sufficient analysis to support his conclusion."[28]
Humphries represented the United States at the2022 Winter Olympics and won a gold medal in themonobob event, and finished in seventh place in thetwo-woman event with brakewomanKaysha Love.[29]That gold medal win meant she was the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals for two different countries (United States and Canada), and the first person to win Olympic gold medals for America and Canada.[5]
Humphries was married toDan Humphries, a former bobsledder who competed for Great Britain and Canada.[30] The pair divorced before the 2014 Olympics.[31]
In 2015, Humphries met American bobsledder Travis Armbruster, and they became partners in 2016.[32] September 2019, she and Armbruster were married in California.[33]
Humphries is affiliated with the "I've Been Bullied" campaign;Right to Play, a sports program for underprivileged youth; and theSpecial Olympics. In April 2011, through Right to Play, she and Canadian gymnastKyle Shewfelt traveled toLiberia to set up sports programs for underprivileged children. She has also spoken at elementary schools inCalgary about the importance of physical activity, setting goals, and avoiding drugs.[34]
Source:[1]
1st withHeather Moyse 1st withHeather Moyse 3rd withPhylicia George 1st in the monobob overall in the2009–10 FIBT World Cup season overall in the2010–11 FIBT World Cup season
overall in the2014–15 FIBT World Cup season overall in the2012–13 FIBT World Cup season overall in the2013–14 FIBT World Cup season overall in the2015–16 FIBT World Cup season 2nd with Combined Team Event 3rd withHeather Moyse 3rd with Combined Team Event 1st withJennifer Ciochetti 3rd with Combined Team Event 1st withChelsea Valois 3rd with Combined Team Event 2nd withMelissa Lotholz, 2nd withMelissa Lotholz 3rd withHeather Moyse 2nd withHeather Moyse 2nd withShelley-Ann Brown 3rd with Combined Team Event 3rd withHeather Moyse 3rd withHeather Moyse 2nd withHeather Moyse 1st withHeather Moyse 3rd withHeather Moyse 3rd with Combined Team Event 2nd withEmily Baadsvik 1st withEmily Baadsvik 1st withEmily Baadsvik 1st withJennifer Ciochetti 1st withChelsea Valois 1st withChelsea Valois 1st withChelsea Valois 1st withChelsea Valois 1st withChelsea Valois 3rd withChelsea Valois 1st withChelsea Valois 2nd withChelsea Valois 3rd withChelsea Valois 1st withHeather Moyse 2nd withHeather Moyse 1st withHeather Moyse 1st withHeather Moyse 3rd withHeather Moyse 3rd withKate O'Brien 3rd withMelissa Lotholz 3rd withMelissa Lotholz 2nd withMelissa Lotholz 2nd withMelissa Lotholz[35] Champion
