Key Takeaways:
- Christine de Bruin of Canada won bronze in the inaugural Olympic monobob race in Beijing on Monday.
- After a series of setbacks on the way to China, the Calgary product finished third in the Games.
On Monday, Christine de Bruin of Canada took bronze in Beijing’s inaugural Olympic monobob race.
Kaillie Humphries, a former Canadian teammate of the Stony Plain, Alta., native, won gold in her first Olympics for the U. S. with a dominant merged four-run time of four minutes 19.27 seconds.
De Bruin finished third in 4:21.03 at Yanqing National Sliding Centre in the new women’s pilot-only bobsled discipline.
Elana Meyers Taylor of the US, who finished third behind de Bruin in the final run, took silver in 4:20.81.
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Cynthia Appiah of Toronto finished eighth on the 1,615-meter, 16-turn track about 90 kilometers north of Beijing.
Humphries won gold in the two-person discipline for Canada in both the 2010 and 2014 Olympics and finished third in 2018 but left the program after an acrimonious split.
After being granted her release by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, she began racing for the United States in 2019.
The Calgary product’s third-place finish at a Games came after a series of setbacks on the way to China.
Humphries didn’t need a passport to compete in other international events, but he did need one for the Olympics.
The 36-year-old received the necessary documents with only a few weeks to spare but then tested positive for COVID-19 last month before recovering in time to fly to Beijing after a roller-coaster ride.
Humphries claimed she was “repeatedly and verbally and mentally abused by the head coach” in a harassment complaint filed with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, the sport’s national governing body, in 2018.
In the email to The Canadian Press in September 2019, she said, “I have repeatedly told Bobsleigh Canada, who have done nothing to stop him, protect me, or get a timely resolution so I can be back competing.” “I was forced to work with him on several occasions, resulting in major mental health issues over the past year.”
The allegations are still being investigated.
Todd Hays, the head coach of the United States women’s team from 2011 to 2014, has been the head coach of Canada since 2017.
Humphries, who is also competing in the two-woman event in China, steered Canada to back-to-back gold medals in 2010 as well as 2014 with brake woman Heather Moyse, making them the first pair of women’s bobsled champions to do so.
Eight years ago, they carried Canada’s flag in Sochi, Russia, during the closing ceremony.
Humphries won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s best athlete in 2014, and Phylicia George won bronze in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018, before the latter dropped out of the program.
She led Canada to gold in the two-person event at the world championships in 2012 and 2013 and the United States in 2020 and 2021.
Last year, Humphries won the first monobob race at the World Championships.
Source: Global News
