The U.S. women have returned atop the Olympic bobsledding podium in dominant fashion, winning two medals in the inaugural Olympic monobob event.
Kaillie Humphries won the first-ever gold in the women’s monobob and teammate Elana Meyers Taylor joined her on the podium with a silver medal. Canadian Christine de Bruin followed behind the Americans to claim bronze.
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This is the first time that an American woman has won gold in bobsledding since Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won the two-women race in 2002.
That said, Humphries and Meyers Taylor are not to be confused as strangers to Olympic glory. They had both already established themselves in the history books ahead of Beijing.
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Entering the monobob, Humphries and Meyers Taylor were the only female athletes in bobsledding history to own three Olympic medals.
However, the distinction of most decorated American bobsledder still belongs solely to Meyers Taylor. The 37 year old won bronze in her Olympic debut in Vancouver and followed that up with a silver medal in both Sochi and PyeongChang. Meyers Taylor has now won a medal in all four of her Olympic appearances.
Meanwhile, Humphries has three golds and a silver to her name, but only one of those is with Team USA. The 36 year old is originally from Calgary, Canada, and represented Canada in the past four Games.
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Following the PyeongChang, she filed harassment complaints against high ranking Canadian bobsledding officials and announced her intention to compete with Team USA. In December of 2020, two months before the Opening Ceremony in Beijing, Humphries was officially sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
With this fourth medal secured, Humphries and Meyers Taylor now each have a chance to add to that collection in the two-women bobsledding event. Training heats are scheduled to begin Tuesday, Feb. 15, followed by the four heats of competition round scheduled for Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.
Both Meyers Taylor and Humphries are expected to compete in the two-women bobsledding, however, the pilot-push pairs have not been confirmed.
