Good luck might come in threes for Humphries
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— The first time she drove a bobsled, Kaillie Humphries broke her collarbone in a crash and paused her pursuit of the pilot’s craft. The first time she went to an Olympics, then as a brakeman, she arrived and departed without participating in a race.
But on the plane home from those 2006 Olympics in Turin, scarred but undeterred by her early failures, Humphries brainstormed a pivot. She vowed to attend a bobsled pilot’s school the following autumn in Lake Placid, N.Y., where, immersed in expert tutelage, she promptly showed elite promise. From then on, she was driving her career, both literally and metaphorically.
A dozen years, two Olympic gold medals and a 2014 Lou Marsh Trophy later, she’s on the precipice of achieving something unprecedented in her sport.
On Tuesday, one of Humphries and former longtime crewmate Heather Moyse can become the first athletes to win three Olympic gold medals in a specific bobsled event when they compete in the women’s two-man.
It’s unlikely both will achieve the feat together. While Humphries, 32, and Moyse, 39, won their first two golds as a duo at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics — with Humphries as the pilot and Moyse the brakeman — they’ve since split and acquired new crewmates.
Humphries is expected to pair here with Phylicia George, the 30-yearold Toronto sprinter and hurdler who previously competed for Canada at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Games, and who took up the sport about six months ago. Moyse, meanwhile, has spent the season with Edmonton’s Alysia Rissling, the 29-year-old driver who ran sixth on the World Cup circuit this season.
Moyse, who retired after 2014, only announced her return to the sport in September after Rissling reached out to her via Instragram looking for advice and mentorship. That request that led Moyse back to the track, even after she’d previously rebuffed Humphries’s calls for a comeback.
Humphries and Moyse share a complicated relationship; as is occasionally pointed out, it’s important to remember that it was Moyse who took Humphries’ spot at the Turin Olympics.
Still, as much as it’s unlikely that Canada would make a last-minute switch, bobsled pairings aren’t etched in stone. It’s theoretically possible Humphries and Moyse could form an 11th-hour reunion. But given how they’ve spoken about their fractious partnership of late, it certainly seems improbable.
What’s beyond doubt is this: If either Humphries or Moyse win gold, it would be a groundbreaking moment. Kevin Kuske of Germany has a chance to win his third gold medal in the four-man competition that goes Sunday. Kuske is among four bobsledders who have won three or more gold medals apiece at the Olympics. All of them are men from Germany, or the former East Germany. None of them won more than two of those golds in the same specific discipline.
Winning here, mind you, is hardly a given.
“I have a large target on my back,” Humphries has said. “If you stand still, the rest of the world is coming harder.”
Humphries comes into the Games as the overall leader in the World Cup points race. But of this year’s eight World Cup races, Humphries has won just three. Germany’s Stephanie Schneider beat her in Konigssee, Germany, last month. In the race before that, it was U.S. driver Elana Meyers Taylor taking the top step on the podium.
To cope with the inherent pressure of being the favourite to three-peat, Humphries has embraced the F.E.A.R. That is, as Humphries recently posted on social media: “Face Everything And Rise.”
That’s the story of Humphries’ rise, through those early stumbles in the sport and elsewhere. Humphries grew up in Calgary as an alpine skier, but she gave up the slopes after a couple of traumatizing acci- dents and was inspired to think about an Olympic vision in part by Mark Tewksbury.
Humphries was taken with the great swimmer’s infectious smile when she watched him win gold in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The story goes that Tewksbury, a business client of Humphries’ father, Ray, later visited the family for dinner. When Tewksbury showed his gold medal to young Kaillie, the bright-eyed future champion said, “I want one of those.”
All these years later, she has a chance to win her third. Whether she succeeds or otherwise, it’s been a ride that will be remembered.