Humphries, Jones win historic title for U.S.
Kaillie Humphries got some help from a U.S. bobsled legend on her way to making history Saturday.
Humphries is the world women’s bobsled champion for a record fourth time, teaming with Lolo Jones to win the title on a snowy day in Altenberg, Germany. Humphries and Jones finished their four runs over two days in three minutes, 48.26 seconds.
And Humphries drove to the title in a sled equipped with runners that were owned by Steven Holcomb, the former world and Olympic champion who died nearly four years ago.
“A big portion of this was for him, too,” Humphries said, talking through her tears moments after winning the title. “This feels great.”
Humphries also won world championships in 2012, 2013 and 2020, along with Olympic golds in 2010 and 2014. The Olympic titles and first two world crowns came while she was racing for Canada. She was released from that national team, began sliding for USA Bobsled in 2019 and is awaiting a citizenship decision that will determine whether she can be part of the U.S. Olympic team next year.
Germany’s Sandra Kiriasis is the only other three-time women’s world champion. And now Humphries stands alone atop that list.
“It is the biggest relief ever,” Humphries said.
Kim Kalicki and Ann-christin Strack won the silver medal in 3:48.61. Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi of Germany finished third in 3:49.27, followed by the German sled of Stephanie Schneider and Leonie Fiebig in fourth and the U.S. sled of Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman in fifth.
Cynthia Appiah, driving the top Canadian sled, and Erica Voss were ninth, 2.51 seconds off the lead. The duo was just .18 seconds behind Humphries and Jones in the final run. Alysia Rissling and Dawn Richardson Wilson were 12th, while Christine de Bruin and Sara Villani were 16th.
Jones is now a world champion in two different sports — winning those crowns in three different decades. She’s a twotime indoor women’s hurdles champion, began bobsledding nearly a decade ago and now has by far the biggest victory of her sliding career.
Jones won the world indoor 60-meter hurdles championships in 2008 and 2010. She went to the Olympics as a hurdler in 2008 and 2012 and had a sizable lead in the 100-metre hurdles final at the Beijing Games 13 years ago before clipping the next-to-last barrier and stumbling out of medal contention. She also was part of the U.S. bobsled team at the 2014 Pyeongchang Games.
Her focus now is the 2022 Beijing Games, and being part of this world title obviously suggests she can help the U.S. be a serious medal contender there.
“I was the first hurdler to win back-to-back golds indoor so I knew the weight — I had literally been in that those shoes — that she was carrying,” Jones said.
“I really just credit Kaillie a lot for just being the vet that she is, holding it all together, staying composed and then just executing. I mean, she deserves this gold medal. She works super hard for it. And she just really killed it.”