Canadian bobsled gold medalist caps Winter Olympics lead-up in Phoenix with Altis coach

No sooner had Kaillie Humphries clinched her fourth World Cup overall women's bobsled title in Konigssee, Germany, than she and Canadian teammate Phylicia George were on a plane ... to Phoenix?

For the Winter Olympics favorites, final training with their coach Stuart McMillan meant returning to Arizona, where Humphries has spent up to three months training every year since 2013 when McMillan joined Altis, an elite professional track training group based in Phoenix.

"I personally think that he's the best bobsleigh coach in the world," Humphries said, venturing that Elena Meyers Taylor would agree. McMillan also coaches Meyers Taylor, the top U.S. women's bobsled pilot, often training her and Humphries together during the bobsled offseason. 

The friendly yet intense rivalry will be played out at a third Winter Olympics on Feb. 20-21 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Humphries was gold medalist in 2010 and 2014. Meyers Taylor was a brakeman on a bronze medal-winning sled in 2010 then drove to a silver medal in 2014 when she was edged out by Humphries by one tenth of a second over four runs by Humphries.

"I know what it feels like to lose to her and she knows what it feels like to lose to me," said Humphries, 2017 World silver medalist behind Meyers Taylor by three-hundreths of a second. "At the end of the day, though, the friendship is still there, but we give each other space when we need it. We don't talk about the results. Once the race is done, we can't change what happened, and we move forward."

Meyers Taylor, second overall in 2017-18 World Cup standings, is completing her pre-Olympic training in Chula Vista, Calif. She will compete in Pyeongchang with brakeman Lauren Gibbs, who trains with another Altis coach Brendan Cole.

There will be German competition at the Olympics, particularly from a sled piloted by Stephanie Schneider that won three of the last five World Cups. But McMillan won't be surprised if the gold medal comes down to Humphries/George vs. Meyers Taylor/Gibbs. 

"It's whoever can bring it on the day and handles the increased pressure best," said McMillan, who will be coaching Humphries this time after being on the U.S. staff at the 2014 Olympics. "Kaillie has got the history, but she won't quite have the start Elena has. So can the Americans beat Kaillie enough at the start so she's not able to catch up driving down the hill."

The Alpensia Sliding Centre track is mostly unfamiliar although there was a World Cup held there in March 2017 (Meyers Taylor took second, Humphries fifth). "It's a fairly technical track that lends itself better to Kaillie, who has more experience and is a slightly better drive," McMillan said. 

But that race was almost a year ago and much has changed since. 

Humphries now is racing with George, a two-time track finalist at the Summer Olympics in the 100-meter hurdles. And Meyers Taylor, who teamed with Lolo Jones at the Pyeongchang World Cup, now is with Gibbs, who was a collegiate volleyball player at Brown before discovering bobsled.

"It's not foreign to me to be with somebody new," said Humphries, who won her Olympic medals with Heather Moyse. "Phylicia is the easiest teammate I've had to work with. I don't have to teach her high performance or what she needs to do to be ready physically and mentally. It's just the skill of pushing and taking her down (the track) and that's it."

"I've very privileged to work with her," said George, who started in bobsled in September. "Kaillie has been a huge mentor, teaching me the ropes and letting me know what I need to do. When I'm at the line behind her, I know I can trust 100 percent that she's prepared and I hope she can trust the same thing with me."

For George, though, training on an 80-degree day at Paradise Valley Community College running track is much more familiar than the icy sledding tracks across Europe. Humphries began this season teaming with Melissa Lotholz and first competed with George in mid-December.

"Maybe my first month, every time I was standing on the blocks getting ready to go down, I was like what am I doing," 30-year-old George said. "But the more I did it, the more comfortable I got with it. I like to think I'm a bobsledder now, not just a track athlete."

Humphries, 32, has spent almost half her life in bobsled. This is her 15th season and 12th as a driver. She going to her fourth Olympics although she did not compete in 2006 as a brakeman. She and Meyers Taylor have been pioneers on mixed gender four-man bobsled crews and Humphries was the first woman to drive an all-female crew against men in a World Cup race in January 2016.

Humphries' coaching relationship with McMillan spans more than a decade, starting in 2006. He's worked with Meyers Taylor with eight years.

"It hasn't always been the easiest road," Humphries said. "At the beginning when she came to me and asked if it was OK if she started working with Stu and at first I wanted to say hell no, he's my coach, go away, I am good because of this. But I was able to have a frank and open conversation with Stu. He allowed me those insecurities for a minute, but he also challenged me to be a better athlete and to rise up and not create a negative environment on tour and to have somebody around that pushes me.

"It's not a competition when we're here training. We want to be the best individually, and we need to push each other to get to that position so neither of us become complacent. We leave everything else to the bobsleigh track. One person goes down at a time. She does her thing, I do mine, may the best person win."