Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor take gold and silver for U.S. in monobob

BEIJING —  Kaillie Humphries stood up straight in her moving bobsled, stretching her arms wide in a pose reminiscent of a favorite internet meme.

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Humphries and fellow American Elana Meyers Taylor solidified their status as the top pilots in the world by finishing first and second, respectively, in the inaugural Olympic women’s monobob competition Monday at Yanqing National Sliding Center.

After changing her citizenship from Canada to the United States after alleging abuse from Canadian coaches, Humphries lapped the field in a wire-to-wire, four-heat victory and won with a combined time of 4:19.27 to claim her third Olympic gold medal.

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Meyers Taylor came back from fourth place after the first day of competition and jumped into the silver medal position with her best run of the competition in the final heat.

The 37-year-old won her fourth Olympic medal with a final run of 1:05.11, which was the fastest time of the heat to finish with a total time of 4:20.81. After she rode past the finish line, Meyers Taylor, who missed training time early in the Games because of a positive coronavirus test that forced her to isolate, raised both arms as she rode past the finish line and slapped her sled. She held her helmet in her hands, stunned, as her time helped her overcome a 0.18-second deficit coming into the fourth heat behind Canada’s Christine de Bruin, who finished third with a time of 4:21.03.

Meyers Taylor, who now has three Olympic silver medals and one bronze, was one of the first to greet Humphries at the end of the track as a staffer handed the gold medalist an American flag. Meyers Taylor, already with a flag draped across her shoulders, held her hand out for a high-five as her teammate rode by. When Humphries stepped out of her sled, she and Meyers led a chant their American teammates watching from the stands quickly joined.

“U-S-A! U-S-A!”