Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries Switched From Canada To The US For The Olympics & Here's Why
Kaillie Humphries came through for Canada at the Olympics, but she still feels like Canada didn’t come through for her.
The 36-year-old bobsledder is hoping to win gold for the United States at the Beijing Winter Games this year, and it’s very much a personal thing for the former Canadian Olympian.
Humphries won two gold medals and a bronze for Canada at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Olympics, and she hasn't turned her back on her Canadian citizenship.
But when Humphries accused her coach of verbal and mental abuse in 2018, she says Canada’s bobsleigh officials didn’t take her seriously enough or do enough to protect her. That's why she's with Team USA now.
Humphries' case has been playing out for years, but she quickly decided that she was done with Team Canada and won the right to slide for Team USA in 2019.
"I found myself in a situation where I didn't feel safe and I didn't feel comfortable," Humphries told The Associated Press in late 2019, after joining her new American team for the first time. "An opportunity arose in a safe and comfortable environment."
Humphries and her husband, former U.S. bobsledder Travis Armbruster, have been living in California ever since, and she's spent the last few years competing for the U.S.
But Humphries still had to get her U.S. citizenship before she could go to the Olympics, and she just wrapped that process up in December ahead of the 2022 Games.
"It has taken many years (and tears) to get to this point," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I've always had a strong belief in what I was doing and who I wanted to become."
Humphries will try to win gold for the U.S. at two events in Beijing: the two-woman bobsleigh event and the women's monobob, a new solo event.
"This has been the most difficult ordeal of my life," she said in a profile on the official Olympics website ahead of the Games. "I want Canada to know that competing for you and winning for you at the Olympics will always be the highlight of my career."
So if you see her waving the stars and stripes instead of the maple leaf in Beijing, now you'll know why.
