Kaillie Humphries poses for a portrait during the Team USA Beijing 2022 Olympic shoot on Sept. 12, 2021 in Irvine, California.
For all of Kaillie Humphries’ Olympic experience, the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will see her breaking new ground in more ways than one.
When the 36-year-old bobsledder hits the course at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre northwest of Beijing, Humphries will do so as a U.S. Olympian. A 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold medalist and 2018 bronze medalist for Team Canada in the two-woman bobsled, Humphries became an American citizen on Dec. 2, a little more than two months before the Feb. 4 Opening Ceremony.
But the Carlsbad, California, resident will also be a medal favorite in an event making its Olympic debut: women’s monobob. It is one of seven new events at this year’s Winter Games.
Previously, the two-woman competition was the only bobsled event for females, while men have had the two- and four-man races. The International Olympic Committee added monobob as a second event for women in this Olympic cycle, giving both genders two medal events.
As the name implies, monobob is a single competitor doing all of the work, from pushing at the start to driving and braking over the icy course. Humphries has made an immediate impact, winning the inaugural world championship in 2021 and finishing second on the just completed monobob world series, trailing only American teammate and fellow Olympian Elana Meyers Taylor.
“The advantages to being by yourself is everything’s up to you,” said Humphries, also the two-time reigning world champion in the two-woman bobsled. “If you have a great run, you know it’s because you did it. You pushed hard, you pushed really fast, you drove really well. Also on the back end if you make a mistake, it’s solely on you. There’s nobody to hide or blame or anything else. It’s 100 percent up to you.”
To keep things even, all of the sleds weigh 162 kilograms (357 pounds) — the same as the two-woman sled — and are made by the same manufacturer. That means it all comes down to the athlete’s skill as to who navigates the track the fastest.
Humphries, considered one of the best drivers in the world, said the biggest differences between monobob and other bobsled races is weight distribution and timing of making turns. While the weight is more over the axles in the two-woman bobsled, the driver’s body is in the center of the sled in monobob, which can cause a bit more of a fishtailing effect.
