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Kaillie Humphries
	Kaillie Humphries in Vancouver 2010
Personal information
Nationality	Canadian
Born	September 4, 1985 (age 39); Calgary, Alberta
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	73 kg (161 lb; 11.5 st)
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Bobsleigh
Event	2-woman
Coached by	Stefan Bosch
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals
Medal record
Women´s Bobsleigh
Representing Canada
Olympic Games
World Championships

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Kaillie Humphries (née Simundson) (born September 4, 1985) is a Canadian bobsledder. Humphries is the reigning Olympic champion in the two-woman at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics. With her victory in 2014 she became the first female bobsledder to successfully defend her Olympic title. Due to her repeat championship she was named flagbearer for the closing ceremonies at the 2014 Games together with brakewoman Heather Moyse. In addition, Humphries is also the two time defending overall World Cup champion. In her career she has won seven FIBT World Championship medals which includes her current title as the reigning two-time World Champion.

Early Years

She is like many bobsled driver before her, she did not start as a bobsledder. The truth is before the age of 16, she was doing alpine ski racing. She dreamed of Olympic gold in it, but after she realized that it's not likely for her to make it into the national team, Humphries started to bobsleigh. She was a brakeman in her first four years, and she was just an alternate to the Canadian team at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino. At the event, she and her teammates finished at fourth. Also the second Canadian team finished at thirteenth.

Humphries was very disappointed about she could not get to compete, she was just an alternate (Encyclopedia,, 2014)., she tried to join the British team. She would qualify to the team if she applies for citizenship once she married Dan Humphries in 2007. Her husband was on the British team at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino as a brakeman as well. Luckily, for the Canadian sports fans, she decided to stay in the Canadian program.”^[2]

World Cup Success

At the following season (2007-08), she finally got on the podium in her rookie season on the World Cup circuit . Shelley-Ann Brown of Pickering and her, Ontario won the bronze medal at one of the competition in Lake Placid, New York. Then, two more silver podium were taken in the 2008-09 season (Encyclopedia,,2014). When Moyse joined Humphries, they placed the second at a World Cup competition in Park City, Utah. The other on in Whistler, BC. These events were significant for Humphries and Moyse because it came only one year before Whistler would host the competitions at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Humphries and Moyse were serious medal contenders at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (Encyclopedia,,2014).”^[2]

Career

In 2007, Humphries was placed low on the Canadian depth chart and did not feature at the 2006 Winter Olympics. In an effort to compete she considered representing the United Kingdom, the country of her then fiance, now husband Dan Humphries. Opting to remain with the Canadian team she gained a spot on the roster after signing up for a bobsleigh driving school.^[2] She won the silver medal in the mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event at the 2008 FIBT World Championships in Altenberg, Germany. Humphries finished the 2009-10 Bobsleigh World Cup second overall with a third place finish on the last stop at Igls.^[3]

Humphries then most prominently won a gold medal in the Two-woman competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics with Heather Moyse. The silver medal was won by fellow Canadians Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton. It marked the first time of the 2010 Olympics that Canadians had won two medals in one event.^[4] The win completed a childhood dream for Humphries. After the final run she said that "I don't think I can put it into words yet, we did our job, you know. The goal I set as a little kid, to have done it, is amazing.”^[2]

During the next couple of years, Humphries met with limited success on the World Cup tour and in World Championship competition. However, during the 2012 championships in Lake Placid she won her first World Championship gold medal with Jennifer Ciochetti as her brakeman. This was also the first gold for any Canadian woman's sled team at the World Championships. When asked about what her result means on top of her Olympic gold she said that "It feels amazing. It is another goal accomplished. This means a lot to me. I feel like I'm still growing as a pilot and I try to learn from every experience. I have been working on my consistency and I'm glad it showed here."^[5] In the team event, Humphries went on to help guide the Canadians to a bronze medal as well, adding to her medal tally that year.^[6]

Continued dominance

Humphries continued to turn heads during the 2012–13 Bobsleigh World Cup season with five straight wins aided by the pushes of new brakeman Chelsea Valois.^[7] This success continued as the pair placed first while setting a track record at the 2013 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz, thus enabling Humphries to successfully defend her title as World Champion. This was also Humphries' twelfth straight podium finish in FIBT events.^[8] She locked up the World Cup overall title with a third place finish at the Sliding Center Sanki near Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Humphries responded to press about her runs saying "They weren't the best runs today, I made a few mistakes, but I am still learning. We are going to come back here again next year for international training week and work hard to clean things up."^[9]

The 2013-14 World Cup season saw Humphries reunited with her Vancouver 2010 teammate, Heather Moyse. The team of Humphries and Moyse traded podium positions with Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams at several World Cup events with the Canadian women ultimately succeeding in winning the overall World Cup title. This close contest between the Canadians and Americans carried into the 2014 Sochi Olympics competition. Meyers and Williams led after Day 1 of competition having produced two runs built on track record push starts that uncharacteristically beat out the Canadian team at what was their strong suit. Despite being beaten on the start times, Humphries made fewer driving errors and produced cleaner runs but was still just over two tenths of a second back from the lead time.

On the second day of competition, the Americans again won out on quick starting pushes but made several driving errors on the technical course. Humphries' clean driving propelled the Canadians from second place into the gold medal position, allowing them to become the first female bobsleigh team to repeat as Olympic champions, the first female Canadian Olympians to repeat as champions since Catriona Lemay Doan, and etching their names into Olympic history. Humphries said of the record setting achievement: "How do you describe achieving a dream? This is a four-year goal of ours. This has been something that we've done together. Winning gold is amazing, but walking away satisfied is better. After the third run I knew that if we did the business we could be on top."^[10]

Activism

She is Affiliated with three man meaningful causes, "I've been Bullied" campaign, "Right to Play", sports program for the underprivileged children and youth, and with the special Olympics. "I've Been Bullied" campaign is a campaign which warns people of the bullying in long-term effects. She speaks about her personal experience as a victim in bullying, and further more she discusses about the importance of avoiding bullying in any sports. "Right to Play" is an organization that uses sport and play as a way of "educate and empower" children facing difficulties such as, overly, disease, and conflict. She is in this organization with the other Canadian Olympic gold medallist, gymnast Kyle Shewfelt. Humphries and Shewfelt brought equipment for sports and set up some sports programs for the underprivileged children and youth when Humphries and Shewfelt traveled to Liberia in April 2011. They want to give some of the underprivileged children a chance to change their lives. In the Special Olympics, Humphries speaks regularly at a few elementary schools at Calgary about the importance of physical activity, setting goals, and saying "no" to drugs.”.^[2]

Personal

Humphries has competed since 2004 and currently slides with Heather Moyse as her brakeman.

Career highlights

Olympic Winter Games: 2006 – Turin, Alternate – Push Athlete, Did Not Compete; 2010 – Vancouver, 1st with Heather Moyse; 2014 – Sochi, 1st with Heather Moyse

FIBT (IBSF) World Cup Overall Season Championship: Third, overall in the 2009–10 FIBT World Cup; Third, overall in the 2010–11 FIBT World Cup

World Championships: 2008 – Altenberg, 2nd with Combined Team Event; 2011 – Winterberg, 3rd with Heather Moyse; 2011 – Winterberg, 3rd with Combined Team Event; 2012 – Lake Placid, 1st with Jennifer Ciochetti; 2012 – Lake Placid, 3rd with Combined Team Event; 2013 – St. Moritz, 1st with Chelsea Valois