The New York Times Sports division is revisiting the topics of some compelling articles from the final yr or so. Here is our February report on the Olympian Kaillie Humphries’s determination to depart Canada to compete for the United States.
The certainty in Kaillie Humphries’s alternative supplied calmness. Nearly a yr in the past, she had not but gained American citizenship to compete for the United States on the Winter Olympics after splitting with Canada’s bobsled federation.
Humphries figured she would both compete on the Olympics in Beijing, including to her stockpile of bobsled medals, or be distant, sipping fruity drinks on a seashore someplace. Either manner, she had reconciled along with her destiny.
Humphries, who had lodged a criticism of psychological and verbal abuse towards Canada’s federation, for whom she had received two Olympic gold medals, turned a naturalized U.S. citizen final December, solely two months earlier than the Beijing Games. Then she earned gold within the inaugural Olympic monobob competitors, changing into the primary individual to win Olympic gold medals for each Canada and the United States.
“I will say this a hundred times over: It was worth it even if I didn’t go to the Games,” stated Humphries, who additionally completed seventh within the Olympic two-woman occasion in Beijing. “I knew coming to Team U.S.A. was the best decision for me and my career and my performance. For me, mentally and physically, being in a safe place was so important.”
The 2022 Olympics capped a yearslong ordeal for Humphries, a five-time world champion, and her husband, Travis Armbruster, a former U.S. bobsledder. After the 2018 Olympics, she filed a proper criticism of psychological and verbal abuse towards Todd Hays, Canada’s bobsled coach, then left the Canada program. She began competing with the U.S. crew with no assurances that she could be granted American citizenship in time for the Olympics.
The couple paused long-term targets like monetary targets and beginning a household to rent legal professionals and regain sponsors in hopes that Humphries would compete on the 2022 Olympics.
“It definitely made it feel like it was the cherry on top, that extra little sweet treat from someone looking down that just said, ‘Yes, this was the right call,’” Humphries stated of her win in monobob, a women-only occasion by which a single sledder pushes and drives her bobsled down an icy observe. “But it always felt like the right decision from the very beginning.”
Humphries, 37, took about three months off after the Olympics. For the primary time in an extended whereas, she discovered herself with time to take into consideration her determination. “We reflect now that we’re in a season where we’re not worried and stressed about citizenship,” Humphries stated. “I’m like, ‘What is this?’ We have not had this for three years.”
She resumed coaching for a few month throughout the summer time earlier than pausing exercises once more.
Over the years, Humphries had grown accustomed to her physique responding to her will. She figured a being pregnant would work the identical manner: It would occur when she wished it to.
Instead, docs found an ovarian cyst when Humphries complained of hip ache in March. When she awoke from a process to take away it, docs informed her she had endometriosis, a debilitating dysfunction by which cells related to the liner of the uterus develop exterior it.
“It takes five to seven years in America to diagnose endometriosis, which is way too long,” Humphries stated. “For most women, you get told painful periods are just a part of it, but you go in there and usually it gets diagnosed when you try and have a family, infertility being one of the big side effects.”
Doctors suggested Humphries that in vitro fertilization introduced her finest odds for being pregnant. She underwent two rounds over the summer time.
“I’ll compete this season and then we’ll look to implant and move forward with family planning next year,” Humphries stated. “It’s definitely a balance. I’m not retiring. I still want to go and compete in 2026, so it’s about how can we start a family and then also continue the career path.”
Humphries’s allegations stay unresolved. Canada’s bobsled federation employed an unbiased agency to look at the criticism. The investigation cited no proof to assist her claims. But Humphries appealed that discovering to an arbitrator who declared the investigation had been insufficient. Another inquiry was began.
Dozens of bobsled and skeleton athletes known as for a management change to Canada’s bobsled and skeleton governing physique in March, saying it had a poisonous tradition. Sarah Storey, the physique’s president and appearing chief govt, determined towards in search of one other time period final month.
“I’m very happy that regardless of what the outcome is or will be, it doesn’t affect my career or my life in any capacity,” Humphries stated. “It’s something that I have offered to no longer be a part of and drop, so that the organization can focus on its athletes that are currently competing for Canada, but I’m only half of the party.”
Humphries discovered herself at her new residence observe in Park City, Utah, this month. She completed first, securing a World Cup monobob victory on her first anniversary as a U.S. citizen. It was a pleasant ending to an eventful yr, and related to how she began it. “The cherry on top,” she stated.
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