Humphries sacrificing medals for experience

Kaillie Humphries still believes deep in her heart that she can play with the boys and even beat them in four-man bobsled.

But with that door closed at least for the time being, the 30-year-old Calgarian is changing course in her charge to convince the International Olympic Committee to give women the same chance as men for medals in bobsled.

The two-time Olympic champion broke the gender barrier last year alongside American Elana Meyers by piloting a four-man sled pushed by three guys. But for the rest of this season, Humphries will lead an allfemale crew — including Melissa Lotholz of Barrhead, Alta., Quebec City’s Genevieve Thibault and Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah — on the World Cup circuit.

The World Cup four-man races are considered gender neutral. Given their deficits in weight and strength, Humphries and her Canadian mates know their chances of winning are virtually non-existent.

Still, the purpose of the exercise is to train at the highest level in advance of an exhibition race at next month’s world championships in Igls, Austria.

“I would still like to race with the men,” Humphries said over the weekend at Canada Olympic Park. “It’s not something that just goes away after a year — a desire, a dream you just give up on.

“I still think I’m good enough. I still think, with a proper men’s crew, I can be one of the best in the world. But I have to take a side step and head up the women’s division. This is the direction Bobsleigh Canada would like me to head in and I accept that graciously.”

Humphries — the modern-day face of the sport in Canada — hopes to see the four-women event added to the Olympic menu for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

“This, as a sport, is what we want,” said Humphries, the 2014 Lou Marsh Award winner as Canada’s most outstanding athlete.

“The first step was proving that we could drive the four-man sled, which is what Elana and I did on the circuit last year. So the whole goal of us doing everything is for us to be able to turn women’s four man into an Olympic event.”

In her first year as a four-man pilot, Humphries finished 18th overall in the World Cup standings.