After fleeing alleged abuse on Team Canada, the bobsledder is ready for her U.S. debut.
Kaillie Humphries is good under pressure. She’s good at propelling a bobsled that weighs a few hundred pounds down an icy mountain. She’s good at jumping into said sled quickly and with grace as it picks up speed. She’s good at guiding it down a careening course at upwards of 80 miles per hour—“safely, but also ideally very fast,” Humphries tells SELF. She’s good at making it look easy even though being one of the best bobsled pilots in the world absolutely is not.
Humphries hails from Canada and spent the first 16 years of her career helping to build the country into a bobsledding powerhouse, earning two Olympic golds and a bronze along the way. But in 2019, she left her team after experiencing what she describes as mental and emotional abuse from Team Canada’s head coach, Todd Hays. Hays has denied any such abuse.
Below, Humphries talks to SELF about her quest for U.S. citizenship, healing after Team Canada, and the sacrifices she’s made to get here.I want to start off by talking about what it’s like to be in the driver’s seat of a bobsled. Can you paint a picture for me?The driver is 100% responsible for navigating the track. So, in the two-man, both people start, and you push for the first 50 meters. Then you jump in the sled as quickly and with as much grace—but also force—as possible.
I got to the 2018 Olympics and I said, “I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to quit. Or I need to walk away.” I was in a 15-year career, heading into what’s supposed to be the pinnacle—defending for a third time an Olympic gold medal. But I was crying on a daily basis and feeling so dehumanized and so victimized as a female. I’m so happy it wasn’t every female who had to deal with this, but I did. And none of the males were getting treated like this.
I often think about this idea that sometimes it feels like women’s abuse has to reach a really grotesque bar for people to start taking it seriously. And a lot of people respond, “Oh, well. She got yelled at. Too bad. That’s coaching.”
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