Kripp Dont Talk to Me or My Son Ever Again
In bobsleigh, as with nigh Olympic sports, your teammates double as rivals.
You lot may train with them and share coaches with them and wear the same uniform as them. But come race solar day, they're your competition.
It's why the controversial difference of former Canadian bobsledder Kaillie Humphries to the U.S. post-obit the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics is mostly shrugged off.
"Even if I was on Team Canada now, we would take been competitors," Humphries said in a recent interview with CBC Sports.
"We accept been all fighting and competing confronting each other. I've always competed against [Canada's] Christine [de Bruin]. So that is no different.
How Canada'south women's bobsledders fare against Humphries, and whether Canadian Justin Kripps can keep stride with German rival Francesco Friedrich, with whom he shared Olympic gilt in 2018, may ultimately determine Canada's bobsleigh success at the Beijing Games.
Canada sent three women's pilots to China. Along with de Bruin, at that place's Cynthia Appiah and Melissa Lotholtz — each of whom previously spent time in Humphries' sled as brakewomen.
All 3 volition race confronting their former teammate in the two-woman event, while de Bruin and Appiah volition too meet Humphries, of Calgary, in monobob, a single-sled event making its Olympic debut. Monobob action begins Feb. thirteen, while the two-woman event starts on February. eighteen.
Lookout | Humphries edges Appiah in Globe Loving cup monobob race:
'1 of us will stand on summit of the podium. I of usa won't'
Simply de Bruin, who made her Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, said the Canadians' focus won't modify no matter who'due south next to them in the starting blocks at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre virtually Beijing.
"While we know information technology is a challenge every time we compete, it respectfully doesn't matter who we are racing because information technology is Canada'due south sleds on the starting block against the clock and the track," de Bruin said.
Meanwhile, Humphries' biggest claiming may come from inside her new team in the class of top-ranked Elana Meyers Taylor.
"I of united states of america will stand on top of the podium. One of us won't. Neither of us might. But at the terminate of the 24-hour interval, we have to fight for that opportunity," Humphries said.
De Bruin ranks 4th in both 2-woman and monobob, while Appiah is 14th in the quondam and third in the latter. Lotholtz ranks 13th in the 2-adult female.
CBC Sports bobsleigh expert Helen Upperton agreed that the Canadians should be unaffected by Humphries' new allegiance.
"Every single week, every single yr, you're racing these people, whether they're on your team or they're non on your team. ... So it's kind of irrelevant, to be honest," she said.
Considering of the nature of the sport, information technology's no surprise Humphries and the Canadian pilots appear unfazed. Their jobs don't change, even if Humphries' colours did.
Besides, it's a competition. You either win or you lose — in almost cases.
Kripps, Friedrich course bond
After Kripps and Friedrich shared gold in 2018, something funny happened: they became friends.
4 years later, Friedrich once once more represents Kripps' biggest contest. Kripps currently ranks 2nd backside Friedrich in both the 2-man and four-man.
The 31-yr-quondam High german pilot won seven of viii races beyond both events on the World Loving cup tour this season and was victorious in each of the concluding four globe championships.
All the same after they exercise battle in Beijing, Friedrich and brakeman Thorsten Margis will fly to California to nourish Kripps' wedding in Apr.
"We talk about how we're looking forwards to that subsequently the Games and simply talk about the tour and all the crazy stuff that's going on this yr with COVID and all that and experiences we're going to have in China," Kripps said.
Kripps said he and Friedrich will even exchange notes on unlike tracks and how to assault certain corners.
The 35-year-sometime Summerland, B.C., native said the unlikely kinship began on that Olympic podium.
"It was just such a special moment and we carried that on into the next season and became friends. It's pretty cool to take that kind of friendship and history with somebody on tour," Kripps said.
Equalizer
Friedrich'south dominance makes Kripps' chore in Beijing seem even more daunting, but the Canadian said there was some reason for promise following a Earth Cup flavour spent predominantly on German tracks.
"The large rivalry is going to come out at the Games because it'south a bit of an equalizer there. We race on a track [in China] that nosotros accept the same amount of runs on and the number that we take on that track for both of united states of america is quite pocket-sized, which is an equalizer for me," he said.
Sentinel | Kripps featured in CBC Sports' 'Returning Champions' series:
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Kripps enters the Beijing Games in a relative land of calm due in part to mental training by fashion of golf.
"Information technology's weird to recall about, but for me, continuing on the starting block at the Olympics, I simply feel at home. I feel confident and I enjoy it. In that location's not this kind of nervousness like when I stand up on the tee box."
Merely the calm likewise comes because he knows what information technology takes to become an Olympic champion.
"You never can let your human foot off the gas."
Like Humphries and the Canadian pilots, Kripps and Friedrich can call themselves friendly rivals.
But in Beijing, their complicated histories will be left behind. They'll all just be competitors.
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/bobsleigh/bobsleigh-rivalries-humphries-canadians-kripps-friedrich-1.6339195
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