BEIJING — Often on the halfway level of an Olympic ladies’s bobsled race, the standings are tremendous shut.
Not this one.
Kaillie Humphries’ first day of Olympic competitors for the US was a runaway, placing the American in full management of the inaugural ladies’s monobob race. She leads Canada’s Christine de Bruin — her former teammate — by 1.04 seconds, by far the most important halftime lead in Olympic ladies’s bobsled historical past.
“It wasn’t excellent,” Humphries mentioned.
The standings counsel in any other case. The 5 earlier ladies’s bobsled competitions on the Olympics — all of them being the two-person selection, in contrast to this new driver-only self-discipline — have seen the midpoint chief forward of the sector by a mean of 0.16 seconds. The largest halftime lead ever was 0.29 seconds.
That's, till Sunday. No person was inside 0.30 seconds of Humphries within the first warmth, no person was inside 0.36 seconds of Humphries within the second warmth. She’ll return to the observe on the Yanqing Sliding Middle on Monday morning, understanding she’s two clear runs away from what could be the third gold medal of her profession.
“You faux like right this moment didn’t exist and have a recent race tomorrow,” Humphries mentioned. “Simpler mentioned than achieved, I can promise you that. However on the finish of the day, I’ve had apply at doing it. And I’ve received, and I’ve misplaced on this place. And tomorrow is a model new day. … I've to proceed to place my finest foot ahead.”
De Bruin’s time was 2:10.14.
“It’s a consistency race,” de Bruin mentioned. “Something can occur.”
Laura Nolte of Germany was third in 2:10.32, and three-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was proper within the medal hunt — her time of two:10.42 placing her fourth.
“It’s an enormous lead,” Nolte mentioned of Humphries’ margin. “She was the one with the fewest errors, or almost no errors.”
Barring an enormous mistake by any individual, it appears like 4 ladies stay within the combine for the three medals. They’ll be selected Monday morning in Beijing, late Sunday night time in the US, proper after the Tremendous Bowl broadcast. The hole between Meyers Taylor and fifth-place Huai Mingming of China is almost a half-second.
“I do know I can drive this observe higher,” Meyers Taylor mentioned. “I’m actually simply going to go tomorrow to try to have some enjoyable. I drive the very best once I’m having some enjoyable. And with all the things that’s been happening, I've not loved myself. So tomorrow, I’m simply going to let it roll and see what occurs.”
The Olympic expertise, thus far, has not gone as Meyers Taylor needed. She examined constructive for COVID-19 and had to surrender the position as U.S. flagbearer for the opening ceremony. She was remoted and separated from her household. Her son, who turns 2 later this month, is normally by her aspect nearly continuously; their visits have been restricted to only a few minutes a day, if that, in Beijing due to virus protocols.
Her son, she mentioned, has dealt with it higher than his mother has. Meyers Taylor confessed that she’s been dropped at tears a number of instances in latest days.
“Isolation just isn't factor,” Meyers Taylor mentioned. “All people who’s been via it is aware of, however particularly once you’re on the Olympics … we lose all sense of management. You may’t even open your door. You may’t select what you need to eat. You may’t select something. You get all of your management taken away from you.”
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Humphries raced in three Olympics for Canada. She and Meyers Taylor are the one three-time medalists in ladies’s bobsled historical past; for Humphries, the haul has been two golds and one bronze.
And now she has an opportunity at two medals in Beijing, with ladies having two bobsled occasions on the Olympic program for the primary time. She and Meyers Taylor have been the athletes who led the combat for a second medal occasion, one thing that males’s bobsledders have had for many years.
“It took a group, a village, a rustic to get right here,” Humphries mentioned.
Merely attending to Beijing was a problem for Humphries on many ranges. She left the Canadian program three years in the past and commenced driving for the U.S.; in World Cup races and world championship occasions, she didn’t want citizenship to take action. However for the Olympics, she wanted a U.S. passport — a course of that she was informed may take 4 years, and if true, would have rendered her ineligible for Beijing.
However the passport was acquired with only a few weeks to spare. After which she examined constructive for COVID-19 final month, additional threatening her Olympic hopes.
Now, passport in hand, virus points behind her, all Humphries has to fret about is the sliding. She skipped the ultimate day of coaching Saturday, hoping she’d achieved sufficient to prepare and making an attempt to provide herself a little bit of relaxation earlier than the primary day of competitors.
Thus far, so good. Day 1 couldn't have gone any higher.
“It’s not misplaced on me,” Humphries mentioned. “I do know what it means to characterize the US. I'm so proud and honored to have the ability to be right here.”
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