Humphries heralds new era for bobsled
Olympic champion ends runs ‘super-proud’ of male teammates
CALGARY — More than a mere curiosity. Or a trailblazer, even.
Kaillie Humphries has only ever really wanted to be known as a bobsled pilot. A damned good one. Period. End of sentence. No limitations. No asterisks.
Wherever. Whenever. Against whomever. The rest, merely details. “It always matters,” said the Olympic champion, confronted by an unusually crowded dock, kitty-corner to the bobsled finish line at Calgary Olympic Park as temperatures began to dip late Saturday afternoon. “At the end of the day, we’re all competitors. And regardless of the field or what has gone on ... I made some major mistakes the first run at the bottom of the track.
“I’m super-proud of my guys. We’re going to keep pushing. Keep learning. But we’re all competitors and we want to win, regardless of male, female. I don’t go out just to finish a race. I go out to win. I know my guys do, too.”
Humphries and her crew of Dan Dale, D.J. McClelland and Joey Nemet didn’t win in Saturday’s four-man. Weren’t close. Neither, for that matter, was Elana Meyers Taylor and her American team of Dustin Greenwood, Carlo Valdes and Adrian Adams.
The two friends, rivals on a weekly basis for the shiniest medals on the women’s side of the sport during World Cup season, finished 15th and 16th in a 17-sled field.
Latvia’s Oskar Melbardis and company topped the podium in 1:47.84, followed by two German sleds, Francesco Friedrich (1:48.01) and Maximilian Arndt (1:48.14).
The ice, though, at least has been officially broken.
The idea of a woman piloting three men down an iceslicked track at warp speeds is now reality, leaving all the athletes to getting down to the business of improving times and positioning, shorn of the sideshow atmosphere.
“Hopefully,” said Meyers Taylor, “this is the starting point to getting our own (four-man) women’s discipline. That’s what we’re really after. If that’s all we can do right now, compete against men, we’re going to give it our best shot.
“It was pretty cool to be in the start house with all the guys, and I’m just in the corner listening to my music. It was just cool to get this World Cup under my belt.
“The biggest change is just the atmosphere. It’s totally different. In the women’s field I go around and congratulate all the competitors. I go and hug them before the race. Kaillie and I talk before the race.
“The men? They don’t talk to the competition at all. The U.S. teams will talk to each other, but you don’t go over and say, ‘Hi,’ to Germany or whatever. In the women’s, it’s no problem.
“So, a big atmosphere change.”
Much was made of the groundbreaking aspect of Saturday’s four-man race; what set it apart and created all of the outside buzz. But history? That, reminded Humphries herself, takes in a whole lot of territory.
“In all fairness, I don’t think we actually did make history. When the sport first began, there used to be four girls and one guy. Way, way, way back. So really, I think we’re just going back to the roots of having women in with the men.”
The friends and rivals, unsurprisingly, fared far better in familiar territory.
In the two-woman event, Humphries collaborated with Kate O’Brien to slide up a place on the second run and collect bronze in a combined time of 1:52.85.
As an encore to last weekend’s season-opening triumph in Lake Placid, Meyers Taylor, given superlative starts by Cherrelle Garrett, posted the two fastest times (55.96 and 55.80) to ease to gold in 1:51.76, followed by Germany’s Anji Schneiderheinze and Franziska Bertels in 1:52.21, 0.45 of a second behind.
So for both pilots, an exacting day of four runs.
“That’s going to be the balance all year, for Elana and I to figure out how to switch between two-man and four-man,” said Humphries. “Most of the time we have a day between to get our head around it.
“The biggest challenge is staying focused. I got up this morning at 6:30. For me to be focused for four intense runs ... I’m usually exhausted after two. And knowing the last two are in four-man where I have the least amount of experience from the driving aspect — switching between two and four is a challenge, especially today.
“I have a really big headache. My head’s been whipped around a little bit today and I’m probably dehydrated. I had an egg and some bacon this morning. That’s all I’ve eaten,” she continued. “I’m pretty exhausted. At the same time, I’m running on pure adrenalin. All three of these guys stepped up and really helped me get through and got me excited between the two different races. They’re two very distinct races.”
“I’m really proud of what she did today and what she overcame,” said Dale, “Having to do all four runs, two different races, drive two different sleds. It’s a testament to what a competitor she is. Hats off to Kaillie.
“Really honoured to be her teammate.”
The feeling, as Humphries mentioned earlier, is entirely mutual. Now, as a collective, they’ll be able to decompress and regroup for the European leg of this season’s World Cup agenda.
The future for women in fours bobsled, meanwhile, has officially been jumpstarted.
“Today,” said Humphries, “is just Step 1. We know we have a long way to go. We’ve got a lot of learning to do. Both (Meyers Taylor) and I are very eager and excited to be on this path, a part of this same journey at this point.
“We want to get more women driving the fourman and eventually having women’s four-man so the women can have two events as well as the men.
“In the meantime, this bridges the gap, a little bit.” Postmedia News
“Today is just Step 1. We know we have a long way to go.” Kaillie Humphries