From Sigulda, LAT
(February 18, 2023) – Kaillie Humphries has done it all in her IBSF World Cup career: Won World Cup titles, won World Championships, and won Olympic gold medals.
She can now add “Inaugural Monobob World Cup Champion” to her storied career.
In her decade-plus long career as a bobsled pilot Humphries had never slid in Sigulda, but entered the race as the World Cup leader and needed just an eighth place finish to take the first ever monobob World Cup championship.
So naturally she showed up, set the track record, and won gold in the season finale.
Humphries broke the track record by nearly a full second in her first effort to open up a .2 second lead over China’s Qing Ying, with Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler, Canada’s Cynthia Appiah, and the German duo of Kim Kalicki and Laura Nolte all behind her.
In the second heat, Kalicki put down a big run to begin a climb from sixth place that eventually took her into the medals, and as Humphries pushed off the top for her final run, Kalicki still held the lead.
Humphries’s second effort, however, matched her first: A strong start, a clean slide, and a downtime that nobody could touch. The American crossed the finish line of her second run with the fast time of each heat, a gold medal, and a World Cup title.
The final margin of victory in the race was .44 over Kalicki.
Behind Humphries and Kalicki, the racing was very tight for the final spot on the podium. Cynthia Appiah put down two big starts, the second of which was enough to set the track start record, to move into the medal discussion with only Ying and Humphries to go. Ying’s second slide couldn’t quite match her first as she tied with Appiah for third place, giving both women bronze medals.
Melanie Hasler finished fifth, with Germany’s Laura Nolte sixth.
In the final season points race, Humphries took the season title by 122 over Nolte. Appiah finished the first World Cup season for the women’s monobob in third.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kaillie Humphries | USA | 4 | 5.69 | 5.69 | 52.78 | 53.74 | 1:46.52 |
| 2 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 6 | 5.84 | 5.86 | 53.08 | 53.88 | 1:46.96 |
| 3 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 9 | 5.62 | 5.60 | 53.01 | 54.09 | 1:47.10 |
| 4 | Qing Ying | CHN | 7 | 5.72 | 5.73 | 52.98 | 54.12 | 1:47.10 |
| 5 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 3 | 5.70 | 5.74 | 52.99 | 54.13 | 1:47.12 |
| 6 | Laura Nolte | GER | 2 | 5.74 | 5.83 | 53.03 | 54.14 | 1:47.17 |
| 7 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 5 | 5.70 | 5.69 | 53.28 | 53.93 | 1:47.21 |
| 8 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 1 | 5.78 | 5.82 | 53.56 | 54.37 | 1:47.93 |
| 9 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 8 | 6.07 | 6.10 | 54.03 | 55.07 | 1:49.10 |
