Humiliation and expulsion – the drama of an Olympic champion

Humphries has been a bank in the two-man bobsleigh for years. Gold in Vancouver, gold in Sochi, bronze in PyeongChang. Of course, the 36-year-old was also considered a contender for precious metal in the run-up to Beijing; her success in the monobob underlined her continued class. The fact that this triumph was historic was not only due to the discipline's premiere at the Olympics. Humphries is the first woman to win gold for two different nations.

But the reason for their change of nation was a sad one. After initially celebrating amazing success with two Olympic victories for her native Canada, the climate within the association deteriorated. In 2018, Humphries finally made serious allegations against her coach Todd Hays. She felt psychologically and verbally abused and then filed a harassment lawsuit. In Canada everything stays the same However, nothing has changed after her allegations. Hays still trains his country's bobsleigh pilots, but the lawsuit was swept under the carpet. A few weeks after Humphries' first allegations, she found all of her bobsleigh equipment lying in the middle of the street in front of the ice track in Calgary. She then took a break and turned her back on the sport she loved. Humphries has found the joy in her sport again. © APA/afp / FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT

“To perform at my best, I have to feel confident. But that is no longer the case in the Canadian Bobsleigh Association,” she explained at the time. According to court documents, Humphries was once attacked personally and professionally with verbal insults for over an hour - in public. This caused an unbearable mental strain on her.

The now three-time Olympic champion then decided to flee and moved to the USA with her husband. There she was welcomed into the bobsleigh association with open arms, and she immediately competed for victories in the World Cup. Two months before the Winter Games, she finally received her passport, which allowed her to take part under the American flag. With her gold medal in the monobob, she repaid her association's trust and ended a dark chapter in her career. “I worry about the athletes who have no way out and have to stay in an uncomfortable position to chase their dreams.” Kaillie Humphries Nevertheless, she still thinks about the horror of Canada. “I worry about the athletes who have no way out and have to stay in an uncomfortable situation in order to chase their dreams,” she underlined the questionable conditions in the Canadian bobsleigh cosmos. In any case, she was able to free herself from this stranglehold and rediscover her joy in bobsleighing.

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Humiliation and expulsion – the drama of an Olympic champion

She made history with her victory at the Olympic premiere of the monobob. For Kaillie Humphries, the Winter Games in Beijing represented a happy ending, so to speak. The Canadian-born woman has been through hell in recent years.

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