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American Olympian Kaillie Humphries cemented her position as the most successful female bobsled pilot in history. And now she can say what she really thinks.
Humphries earned a hard-earned bronze in the women’s two-man bobsled last weekend, marking her sixth Olympic medal and adding to her collection of three golds and two other bronzes.
Now, as Humphries looks forward to her next contribution to Team USA, she hopes to serve on the White House Task Force for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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Kaillie Humphries of Team United States competes in the Women’s Monobob Bobsleigh Heat 3 on day ten of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Cortina Sliding Center on February 16, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/GettyImages)
She hopes to do so as a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
“I’m a Republican,” Humphries told Pakinomist Digital, adding that she was voting for Trump in 2024.
Humphries holds a unique place in Olympic history as the only bobsledder to win a gold medal for two different countries.
She won gold for Team Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Games and 2014 Sochi Games. She then went through a grueling process to become a US citizen before competing for Team USA in the 2022 Beijing Games, where she also won gold.
Her process of becoming a legal immigrant and seeking a new life in the United States after settling in San Diego, California, where she now raises a son with her husband Travis, has given her immense pride as an American. She believes that it is a system that must be maintained and respected.
“I stand with legal immigration. I think it’s a very tough process, it’s not an easy process,” she said, noting the American flag on her T-shirt. “It shouldn’t be an easy process. It’s hard, you’re actively looking for something great. That’s why I can stand here and be very proud to wear this flag across my chest and represent the United States.
“For our country to remain the best country in the world, we need these controls…otherwise we’re just lawless and people make things up as they go.”
USA’s Kaillie Humphries holds a USA flag after competing to win bronze in the bobsleigh women’s monobob heat 4 at the Cortina Sliding Center during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo on February 16, 2026. (Marco BERTORELLO/AFP)
A native of Calgary, Alberta, she came up through the country’s national development team as a skier before switching to bobsled in 2002. She got her first taste of Olympic glory for Canada, but had a problem with her coach after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
At the time, she had already begun the process of becoming a US citizen, starting in 2016, but continued to compete for Canada. She quickly realized that she had to change.
“I went through a big problem with Bobsled Canada and the head coach that they hired. And I was physically and mentally abused by the head coach. I physically feared for my safety,” she said. “When I brought it up to our administration at Bobsled Canada, they decided to support him as their choice of coach that they hired for the Olympic year and not support me.
“They cut my funding, they cut my support, they removed me from the team and there was no going back. And because I lived in the US and was engaged to an American at the time, I called USA Bobsled.”
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to Bobsleigh Canada for a response.
Humphries had to earn her way onto the U.S. team, spend $70,000 on her own bobsled and even buy all her own equipment before proving she had plenty left in the tank, even in her late 30s, at U.S. trials ahead of the 2022 Beijing Games. She completed her path to U.S. citizenship in December 2021, just in time to represent the red, white and blue in China, where she won the first-ever monobob gold for the United States
Canadian gold medalists Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphrys celebrate on the podium during the medal ceremony for the women’s bobsled event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Whistler Medal Plaza on February 25, 2010 in Whistler. (Photo by OLIVIER MORIN / AFP)
“I am so grateful that I had the opportunity that the United States allowed and empowered me to be the best version of myself and continue my career and allowed me to be the best in the world for such a great country,” she said. “It was such an honor to carry the flag of the United States … and represent this life now in the United States.”
Through all the obstacles and medals, Humphries developed an understanding of the sanctity of women’s sport, and the sacrifices women must go through to achieve a chance at glory.
Now, as an American living in California, she has witnessed a wave of transgender athletes navigating their way into women’s sports, both in her state and across the country. And she feels compelled to speak out.
As a hopeful member of the White House Task Force on the 2028 Summer Olympics, Humphries fully supports Trump’s proposed mandatory genetic gender testing to protect the female category.
“I think it’s very important that women have their own category to compete in,” she said. “There is a big difference between men and women, especially when it comes to speed, power and strength-based sports.”
Humphries recalled his own competition against men in mixed events in 2015.
“If I do that, I’m 100% very sure that as a woman in this sport I have no chance to compete against the men and be successful,” she said. “There is a drastic difference. We have different chromosomes and different genetics…
“When I look at others [sports] like boxing, where there is a physical safety element, you know we have to protect the women’s sport.”
Most Americans support protecting women’s sports from trans athletes, according to several surveys. But some female sports fans, often with partisan leftist views, have viewed efforts to create protections for the women’s category as “bigotry” or “transphobia”, including several elected US politicians.
“I would ask if they’ve ever been to an Olympic sport and had to try to compete against someone world-class,” Humphries said when asked what argument she would make to those opposed to protecting women’s sports. “There are categories for a reason… women have their own category and deservedly so, men have a category and if the trans community wants to compete in a sport there should be a category for them too…
“We need help to protect women’s sport, or unfortunately, because of the huge disparity, it will just end up disappearing.”
U.S. FIELD HOCKEY STARS reflect on American pride after bringing home OLYMPIC GOLD
Humphries agreed that critics of protecting women’s sports “use bigotry to hide the flaws in their argument.”
Humphries had a moment to truly appreciate the accomplishments of American female athletes when the U.S. women’s hockey team beat her native Canada in the gold medal game last week. A few days later, she celebrated the US men’s team beating Canada as well.
“Miracle on Ice again,” she called it. “To be honest, I have friends on both sides. So there was a part of me that feels for individual athletes, but I’m so proud that men and women on both sides are taking home gold as a very passionate American.”
Neither hockey team was able to return to the United States before being caught up in the country’s political theater.
When Trump called the men’s team in the locker room to invite the players to the White House, he made a since-infamous comment, saying “we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you know that,” adding, “I think I’d probably be impeached,” which was met with a chorus of laughter from the players.
While many were angered by the exchange, Humphries wasn’t going to let it bother her.
“I think all the jokes around the world can be taken personally, not personally, I mean, that’s the point of jokes,” she said.
“Everybody’s going to take it how they’re going to take it… As a woman, I’m going to be sensitive to female jokes in sports, at the same time, as a high-performance athlete who believes in being the best in herself, and being in a very male-dominated sport, which is bobsled, I can understand when a joke is a joke. me. It wasn’t a joke about me.”
She added of Trump: “I personally don’t believe his intent was intended the way it came across.”
The men’s team visited the White House and even attended Trump’s State of The Union address on Tuesday night, all while facing enormous scrutiny from the political left for their reaction to the joke and general closeness to the president.
Several mainstream US media outlets have written op-eds condemning the US men’s team for its association with Trump, despite such a historic victory.
“I think it’s sad that you’re going to diminish an achievement, a great achievement, knowing they haven’t won in 46 years,” she said.
“For any athlete to be invited to the White House and be proud to represent your country…whether they voted for him or not, you have to celebrate with the ultimate person who runs our government, I would have gone if I was invited. So I don’t blame them. I’m jealous that the men’s hockey team got to go, but I think it’s sad to focus on the smallest part of the positive instead of…
“Unfortunately, politics likes to get in the way of sports.”
Humphries may get the chance to visit the White House himself, as traditionally all Team USA athletes are invited to the White House in the spring after the Winter Games are over.
It may be her last opportunity to visit the White House as an Olympic medalist, but that is not certain as she plans to continue competing even at age 40.
Still, she has other commitments as a mother with a hopefully growing family after she and Travis welcome their son, Aulden, in June 2024. Aulden was born after a challenging journey involving endometriosis and IVF, and Humphries plans to use IVF again, and depending on how that goes, will determine her next step as an athlete.
But the couple has a sense of peace knowing IVF will come at a lower cost after Trump signed an executive order from February 2025 focused on reducing IVF costs.
“As an athlete and a mother, it feels like hope to know that insurance now covers IVF. The financial weight of fertility treatments can be overwhelming, and lifting that burden means we can dream of growing our family with excitement instead of fear,” said Humphries.
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USA bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries kisses her son on the podium of the bobsled women’s monobob at the Cortina Sliding Center during the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo on February 16, 2026. (Marco BERTORELLO/AFP)
If Humphries returns to the sport, finding a way to top her current resume will be a challenge. She is a six-time Olympic medalist, the only female athlete in Olympic history to win a gold medal for two countries and the only athlete to win gold in all three bobsleigh events.
And now, after her bronze medal win in the two-man event in Milan Cortina, she and her brakeman Jasmine Jones are the first team of two mothers to reach the bobsleigh podium in Olympic history.
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