By David Kirton
YANQING, China (Reuters) -Kaillie Humphries won the first-ever Olympic gold in the monobob on Monday, leaving rivals behind over four unmatched runs that underlined her status as one of the sport’s true powerhouses.
It was not even close as the 36-year-old “blonde bomber” racked up four runs with a total time of 4:19:27 under azure skies in the snow-blanketed hills of Yanqing, 74 km (46 miles) north of the capital.
Her teammate, Elana Mayers Taylor, and Canada’s Christine de Bruin were left in a scrap for silver and bronze.
Mayers Taylor finished 1.54 seconds behind Humphries and the Canadian was 1.76 seconds behind the reigning monobob World Series and two-woman bobsleigh World Cup champion.
In the women-only monobob, a new event at the Games, drivers push a 130-kg (286 lb) sled as fast as they can before jumping in and barrelling down an icetrack at speeds up to 120 kph (75 mph).
Though less weight means it travels slightly slower than the two-person bobsleigh, it tests all the driver’s skill as the sole sprinter and driver.
For Humphries, it is her fourth Olympic medal – she won bronze in Pyeongchang four years ago in the two-woman and golds in the same event in Sochi and Vancouver.
But she wins this time as a member of the U.S. team – Humphries switched teams and citizenship from Canada after filing a harassment complaint against Bobsleigh Canada in 2018.
Mayers Taylor’s silver was particularly impressive given the 37-year-old mother of a toddler had tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Beijing and was in isolation until Feb. 5.
“I haven’t been able to have the type of training I wanted to. It’s been really hard to focus over the last three days of training going into this, but I’m able to do some good things on the track,” she told reporters after the first heat on Sunday.
She was ecstatic at the finish line, receiving one of the loudest cheers heard at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, where the crowd has been relatively small due to COVID-19 restrictions.
After Humphries’ final run, the pair rushed to embrace, draped in American flags.
(Reporting by David KirtonEditing by Robert Birsel)
