Los Angeles (AFP) - Kaillie Humphries, who won two Olympic gold medals for Canada before becoming an American citizen in December, was named to the US Olympic bobsled team.
Humphries' addition was expected after the reigning world champion cut ties with her native Canada so she could represent the US at the Beijing Olympics.She is expected to lead the US to multiple bobsled medals next month.
Humphries is headed to her fourth Olympics but first as an American after being chosen as one of 12 athletes on Monday in St.Moritz, Switzerland where the bobsled roster was being set.
"The selection committee met to thoroughly deliberate who should be nominated to this team, and it wasn’t an easy decision," USA Bobsled and Skeleton chief executive Aron McGuire said from Switzerland."We are fortunate to have a deep talent pool, but that makes it really difficult to decide who gets selected."
The Calgary-born Humphries earned gold-gold-bronze in the last three Olympic Games’ two-woman competitions.
She left Canada's programme after filing a complaint in 2018 of verbal and emotional abuse by a Canadian coach.
The bobsleigh federation granted Humphries a release in 2019 after she had tried unsuccessfully to get the Canadian court system to force the governing body to do it.
Humphries had been living in California on a green card.
