New American Citizen Kaillie Humphries Continues Big Week With Monobob World Cup Wins

by Alex Abrams

Kaillie Humphries celebrates winning the fourth heat of the women’s monobob at the IBSF World Championships 2021 on Feb. 14, 2021 in Altenberg, Germany.

 

Kaillie Humphries earned her United States citizenship on Thursday and won her first world cup race as an American two days later.
Humphries celebrated another milestone this week when she posted a two-run total of 2 minutes, 0.57 seconds Saturday to earn a victory at the women’s monobob world series competition in Altenberg, Germany.
Humphries, a native of Canada who now lives in Carlsbad, California, got off to a fast start and improved her time on her second run to edge former Canadian teammate Cynthia Appiah by 0.06 seconds. Appiah, who had the fastest time in the first run and was 0.9 seconds ahead of Humphries, finished second at 2:00.63.
Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympian who has won two silver medals and a bronze for Team USA, took sixth at 2:01.87. Meyers Taylor had won the first two events this season in monobob, an event that will make its Olympic debut in Beijing.
Humphries has enjoyed a whirlwind week so far. She got in her qualifying runs in Altenberg on Tuesday, then flew to Los Angeles the next day to be sworn in as an American citizen. As soon as the ceremony was done Thursday, Humphries rushed back to Germany to race.

 

 


Humphries has competed for the U.S. in world cup competitions and at the world championships as a green card holder. However, she needed her citizenship to compete under the U.S. flag at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022.


Humphries, who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014 in two-woman bobsled and added a bronze in 2018, has lived in the U.S. since 2016.


“I still had days until yesterday where I’d wake up and wonder why I’m doing this, days where I lacked motivation,” Humphries said. “When things get hard, you start to doubt, and when you don’t have the Olympics as the end goal that you’re fighting for, those doubts creep in. 


“I love what I do, but being able to wake up today and not have the stress of not knowing whether or not I’d be able to compete in the Olympics was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”

 

Alex Abrams #


Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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