They were the first Canadian women to win Olympic gold in bobsleigh. Then a spate of injuries sidelined Heather Moyse, and Kaillie Humphries moved on with other brakemen. With Moyse’s return to the sport last year, their reunion as sled-mates wasn’t a sure thing.
Wednesday they go for back-to-back Olympic gold medals. They spoke with Sportsnet before heading to Sochi to talk about “breaking up” and getting back together.
Moyse: First of all, we never “broke up.” I had committed to play in the Rugby World Cup in the summer of 2010. That tournament was probably the best rugby I had ever played in my life, but in the final game I destroyed my ankle. The whole first half of the bobsled season I was at home rehabbing. I was able to return to the tour in January and I did the two races leading up to the World Championship. I would slide one session during the week, and then my ankle would swell up. I’d be fine on race day, but then it would swell up again.
The next season, a doctor suggested I take up track cycling. That took me to Los Angeles the following winter. I had an MRI and found out that my ankle was all the way healed. I started training again and got a lot of pain in my hip and needed surgery [in 2012]. That kind of threw Kaillie for a loop. She had to turn her focus somewhere else and she found a good teammate in Chelsea [Valois, with whom Humphries won the world championship title last season].
Coming back to [bobsled this past summer], I didn’t know what was going to happen with Kaillie. She couldn’t come out and say, “You’re my brakeman, I’m so excited you’re back and can’t wait to push together.” I still needed to prove myself–first just to make the standards to train with the program, and then about a month later we had to push again as a whole team to determine the selections. I think the testing gave Kaillie the go-ahead to say, “OK, [Heather]’s back. I’m OK with this, she’s in a good spot.” You can’t commit to someone if you don’t know whether or not they can deliver. The decision came down to strictly numbers in testing. I ended up pushing faster than I’ve ever pushed before, and that put me as the Canada One brakeman pushing Kaillie’s sled.
Humphries: When Heather came back, it just clicked again. I felt comfortable right away, everything fit. I know I can fully trust her. We’ve been through so much together, it’s just not the same with anyone else. As a pilot, it’s a luxury to have such peace of mind. I can put all my energy on driving, and I know she takes good care of the starts. Truth be told, she’s the reason behind our comeback in St. Moritz; we both worked hard on the second run and took care of business! [At a World Cup event in January, Humphries and Moyse moved up from 10th place after the first run to take gold.]
Moyse: I think there’s a different kind of chemistry when it comes to women versus men. Men, for the most part, can just say, “I want to win, that’s it. You do your job, I’ll do mine.” Women, as much as I hate to admit it, tend to be a little more emotional at times, and that can play a role in the chemistry between people.
Humphries: This is going to sound clichéd, but Chelsea is like a little sister to me. We had an amazing year together, and she knows I’m still around if she needs advice. It wasn’t an easy conversation to have, but it’s not like we’re completely separated. We have a pretty close-knit family in the Bobsleigh Canada team.
Going into Sochi, Heather and I know that we are targets. We’ve set up a plan, and it’s been going well so far. Truth be told, at the end of the day, we are harder on ourselves than anybody else will ever be.