Column: ‘Superhero’ Kaillie Humphries returns home to Carlsbad with Winter Olympics gold medal

The punishing path Kaillie Humphries navigated to another Olympic gold medal in bobsled — a wholly different gold, in a different country, under unimaginably different circumstances — delivered more hair-raising turns than the Flying Snow Dragon course she tamed in Beijing.

There was the bitter breakup with Team Canada, centering on a coach Humphries labeled as verbally and mentally abusive.

There was the matter of establishing her U.S. citizenship and eligibility to compete that threatened her Winter Olympics until mere months remained.

There was the financial strain of training and legal entanglements that choked off oxygen from a dream relentlessly under attack.

The bruising obstacles made the smile wider, the beaming face brighter, the cheers ring more crisply Monday while Humphries perched on the back seat of a borrowed Bentley convertible as it pulled into her sleepy Carlsbad cul-de-sac.

Neighbors, who decorated the townhome with patriotic flags, balloons, signs and red-white-and-blue sidewalk chalk, waited to wrap a small community’s arms around someone who conquered much more than a mountain.

Asked to compare the lows of 2021 to the highs of winning a medal in four Olympics and gold for two countries, Humphries’ husband Travis Armbruster exhaled a knowing breath.

“Bottom of the bottom of the ocean, compared to the top of Mount Everest,” he said.

Carlsbad’s Kaillie Humphries, right, shows neighbors the bobsledding gold medal she won at the Beijing Games. It was her third career gold, after winning two for Canada.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Those living around Humphries did not fully understand the sports celebrity in their midst when a powerful, tattooed woman pushed a makeshift sled up and down the street as COVID muted training options.

They knew her as the kind woman who stopped a workout session in her garage to help a young girl who stopped by with a school project on Canada. Soon, neighborhood girls climbed on the sled as Humphries strained against the off-beat training tool representing her dogged persistence.

“Knowing we had a 1 percent chance of making it happen, it was just so uncertain,” said Humphries, who received her passport in December. “Regardless of the challenges put in front of us, we believed in what we thought was right. We believed in the dream.

“We had to move forward with a lot of blind belief and faith.”

There were too many roadblocks to count as Humphries fought through external pressures that might have cratered her path.

When she won the monobob event Feb. 14 in Beijing — history itself, as a first-time event — it added to golds captured in 2014 Sochi and 2010 Vancouver. The resume also includes a 2018 bronze in Pyeongchang and five world championships.

In a postrace interview after collecting another gold, the eyes of the determined and resolute Humphries moistened.

“She’s an emotional person at times, though usually not during competition, not during races,” Armbruster said. “You could just tell there was a huge release of emotions. That was the first time I’ve ever seen her tear up during an interview.”

Humphries holds the Winter Olympics bobsledding gold from the Beijing Games, her third career gold.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Why did the emotional dam nearly burst? Gold or no gold, stress and strains continue.

The couple won an appeal to relaunch an investigation into alleged treatment by then-coach Todd Hays, who has denied the claims and filed a defamation suit. And pocketing gold is no guarantee it can truly erase the money-related wreckage of the painful split with Canada.

“I think a common misconception is that once you win a medal, you’ve got tons of endorsements,” Armbruster said. “In the Olympics, the majority of all endorsements are done prior to the Games. There’s a very small amount who get any of the major Olympic sponsors and she’s not one of them.

“Right now, we don’t have that big, voila, financial payoff. This gives us a jumping-off point, though.”

Good luck putting a price on Monday, though.

Humphries posed with young girls and signed autographs as wide-eyed children lingered in awe. Recently moved neighbor Jill Murphy laughed at her young daughter Olivia’s take on things.

“My daughter said, ‘Kaillie’s a superhero,’ ” Murphy said. “She’s such a down-to-earth person and just so friendly and positive with the girls. She’s such a good role model.”

For 34 years, Pat Feasel has lived on the otherwise nondescript cul-de-sac.

“I’ve seen a lot of people come and go,” Feasel said. “Never had an Olympic gold medalist. I’ve seen how hard she works. Hot, cold, whatever, she’s pushing that sled and running.

“Watching her put the flag around her and get that medal was so exciting.”

Sidewalk chalk chronicles the most recent part of the journey. Apparently, there are more chapters to write for the 36-year-old who won one of just eight American golds in China.

Humphries began as an alternate brakeman for Team Canada at the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy. She plans to continue competing until the 2026 Winter Olympics in the shared Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Capping a 20-year Olympic career in the country where it started offers attractive symmetry. Some obstacles of the past loom less. A gold medal for the United States validated the rattling road traveled.

After facing so many uncertain tomorrows, Humphries had the next one sorted.

“I’m definitely going to sleep in,” she said. “I’m definitely going to get some sushi. Hang out with my neighbors and support system that got me to this point. This is the first time I don’t have to wake up tomorrow and go, ‘OK, what do we have to do today?’

“I don’t have to think about that for the next little bit. It feels very peaceful. I’m excited about that.”

The time has arrived when pride in the personal path outshines the icy one in Beijing.

There should be medals for that, too.