Zenith

  • Latest News

    Saturday, February 6, 2021

    Lolo Jones, Kaillie Humphries Win Historic Bobsled World Championship

    Kaillie Humphries, right, and Lolo Jones celebrate after winning the two women's bobsled race. MATTHIAS SCHRADER, AP
    Kaillie Humphries and Lolo Jones won the world bobsled championships, a record-breaking fourth gold for Humphries and arguably the biggest title of Jones’ two-sport career.

    Humphries, with Jones as her push athlete, became the first four-time world champion in two-woman bobsled.

    The duo prevailed by .35 of a second over Germans Kim Kalicki and Ann-Christin Strack combining times from four runs in Altenberg, Germany, on Friday and Saturday.

    “We’re not the youngest spring chickens out there right now, but Lolo and I have faith in each other,” Humphries, a 35-year-old who competed on the sled runners formerly used by 2010 Olympic champion Steven Holcomb, who died in 2017, said, according to USA Bobsled and Skeleton. “We believed in each other.”

    Jones, one of 10 U.S. athletes to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, earned her first world title in an Olympic program event at age 38.

    “I didn’t think I would be emotional,” Jones said, accordingto USA Bobsled. “I don’t know if the snow was hitting me at the braking stretch or if I was crying, but I think I was crying.”

    It bodes well for a long-awaited first Olympic medal next year in Beijing. In 2008 in the Chinese capital, Jones hit the penultimate hurdle while leading the Olympic 100m hurdles final and ended up seventh.

    Jones finished fourth in the 2012 Olympics, then took up bobsled, placing 11th in the 2014 Olympics in the No. 3 U.S. sled.

    Her Olympic and bobsled career appeared over after she withdrew before the 2016 Olympic Track and Field Trials after hip surgery and failed to make the 2018 Winter Olympic team.

    But Humphries, a two-time Olympic champion for Canada who switched to the U.S. in 2019, lobbied Jones to return to the ice.

    Jones made the national team last autumn off three weeks of bobsled training, after participating in an MTV reality show following the Tokyo Games postponement to 2021.

    “I wondered if I would even have a chance to be able to crack into the circle with no proper prep,” was posted on Jones’ Instagram before the season. “I communicated to the coaches and driver my concern about returning in such a unprepared state. But I said eff it. I’ve faced bigger odds than this so regardless of training or prep I’m going to try to make this team.”

    Jones, who hasn’t ruled out a Tokyo Olympic bid, must keep her bobsled form into next January, when two to three push athletes will be named to the Olympic team. She would be the oldest U.S. Olympic female bobsledder ever (two-woman bobsled added to the Olympics in 2002).

    If Jones makes the team, and then gets paired with Humphries or triple Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, she should have a great chance at the podium. Meyers Taylor, who gave birth to son Nico last February, was fifth at worlds after making the podium in the last three World Cups.

    Humphries, who broke her tie with retired German Sandra Kiriasis for the most two-woman world titles, is not currently eligible for the U.S. Olympic team but is in the process of obtaining citizenship.

    Humphries prevailed in Altenberg in just her second international competition with Jones in her sled. And in a new sled that she received earlier this week. She took five runs in it before the four competition heats.

    Earlier Saturday, German Francesco Friedrich took the lead by .88 halfway through the two-man event. Friedrich, who took gold in both events at the 2018 Olympics, seeks a seventh consecutive world title in the event on Sunday.

    The U.S. men skipped worlds, opting to return home to focus on preparation for next season.

    • Blogger Comments
    • Facebook Comments

    0 comments:

    Item Reviewed: Lolo Jones, Kaillie Humphries Win Historic Bobsled World Championship Rating: 5 Reviewed By: BrandIconImage
    Scroll to Top