Kaillie Humphries, right, and Lolo Jones celebrate after winning the two women's bobsled race. MATTHIAS SCHRADER, AP |
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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment