独家优惠奖金 100% 高达 1 BTC + 180 免费旋转

THE TRAIL OF KAILLIE HUMPHRIES

Kaillie Humphries is on trial for not being nice. That’s it really. Canadians are nice, Kaillie is not, therefore Kaillie is unCanadian. Basic syllogism here.

She been accused of being hard to deal with, brutal with teammates, a misery to be around on the World Cup circuit and worse, she’s not nice.

And her attempted escape to the US is considered treason, or at least, unCanadian.

There’s a lot to unpack her and much of it is tough to grasp and outside the normal narrative about sport and performance. There is a lot of garden variety BS too.

First to the past: standards, their use and abuse.

Kallie’s attempt to compete in men’s 4-man and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) cutting her down at the knees centred on performance and upon a claim that Kallie didn’t meet objective — and objectivity here is rather important — performance standards.

Some argued that because Kaillie failed to meet ‘a’ standard she had no cause for grievance, and in so doing assumed that the standard was fair and objective. Her push times where too slow to qualify for the men’s 4-man, and BSC had set an objective standard.

No, they had not.

To evaluate the ability of an athlete to drive a bobsleigh, you need to consider three metrics, not just one. These are 1. start time, 2. head and 3. hands.

Using these three metrics Kaillie scores off the charts in head — she delivers in the biggest events always, and hands — she drives beautifully. In two of the three objective standards for assessing drivers she’s 12 of 10 — off the charts.

On the latter metric and BCS’s sole standard that they pulled from their objective nethers and that Kaillie failed to meet; Lyndon Rush likely would not have if it had been applied to him.

Lyndon was slow in the start, had magic hands and a good head. Despite being slow at the start he won a bronze medal in Vancouver.

Like Kaillie, he was good on two of the three core driver metrics that make up the holly trinity of the skills of needed to win an Olympic medal.

This objective standard wasn’t applied to Lyndon and it was used to kill Kaillie’s bid to drive 4-man. And the application of a faulty standard to Kaillie here — both partial and inaccurate — reeks of sexism.

Sure, Kaillie is slow at the start against the men. Could she WIN!!!! Not likely, but she is capable of a 6th in 4-man, in her case 3-man/1-woman, in the Olympic Games. She would be competitive at the edges.

But “we’re WINNERS” shrieked BCS’s President Sarah Storey, and ‘We Own the Podium’ or not, since Norway, who eschews the bogus notion of winning as the sole or key metric of success, kicked our national butts in Korea. That was some objective REALITY!!!!

And if enough men blew their runs, as many did in Korea, Kaillie with a 6th place performance, could back into a medal. Not likely, but possible.

Justin Kripps and Alex Kopazk had no real chance of winning in Korea either. They tied because Francesco Friedrich put his sled through turn two sideways, which is death and should have ended his medal chances full-on.

But after disaster on his 2nd run, Friedrick mounted the most incredible come back ever to tie for the gold medal. If Friedrick hadn’t put his sled so far wrong in the 2nd run, he would have beaten Kripps by a lot.

Given that improbable things happened for Kripps leading to a win, Kaillie might at least be afforded the chance to back into a medal. And she’s right on this one, whether you like it or not, she’s earned it. EARNED! Objectively earned the shot.

Kaillie’s attempt to compete in 4-man was not a demand that BCS “do her a solid”, as one fiction writer masquerading as a sportswriter claimed. She had a shot at history, a longish shot perhaps, but it was a shot. She would have been close, it would have been historic, and it would have been great to watch.

One metric does not replace an analytic framework. And taking one metric out of the framework and using it as a club to render stupid smart is common in bobsleigh.

There is a strong bias towards using start times as the sole metric for performance in bobsleigh. It’s the first metric that comes up on each run, and it’s simple to evaluate. But the use of this metric separated from other metrics bites in the world of ‘reality.’

Todd Hayes, Coach of Canada’s 2018 Olympic team and BSC’s current national team coach argued through the Olympic year that start times were everything and the only metric that mattered. And that if you win the start, you’d be so far ahead that no one could catch you.

In Korea Canada One 4-man had the fastest start time by a lot, lost their massive start advantage by the first time-check at 100 metres and then bleed to death on downtime finishing far back.

Todd’s claim is objectively bullshit.

Canada 1 won the start by a lot and lost it the rest of the way. There was a problem and it was clear to everyone. But Todd ‘knows’ and is a stable genius, so the team he set, after he had trashed brilliant start teams through the year, went to the Games where they were destroyed.

But Todd knows how to build a start team… He knows the metrics… Really?

On to the nationalistic clap trap. Canada gives so much that they, the athletes, owe it… This is ‘prejudice masked as sharp argument wrapped in common sense’ and this argument can be trashed in two ways.

Canada gives so the athletes can perform. Let’s see. Canada has not had a sled runner development program since 2010 and a lot of the runners from that period are still very much in use. Sled development — nothing has been delivered — ever.

The country invests in the athlete, so the athlete should never leave. Can we say indentured servitude?

Jan Hudec wins a medal for Canada and comes back the next year to be presented with an invoice of $40,000 for team fees. He paid to play. And after winning for Canada he couldn’t pay, and an appreciative Canada said to a Canadian WINNER you can’t play.

So, he went to the Czech team. He was released by Canada. Precedent here.

Team fees are the backbone of arbitrary funding raising in Canada. Heather Moyes came back to help a young athlete at the 2018 Olympic Games, shuts down her rather successful business and in gratitude BSC handed her an invoice for $9,000 in team fees. Two-time medalist for Canada, Lascelles Brown got one too.

Any team that has team fees in any form, that fund raises on the backs of athletes has no case to claim that they have invested ‘so much’ in the athlete. The athletes on most Canadian teams are paying to play and on some teams the fees are exorbitant.

Any team that fund raises on the backs of their athletes has no claim to block the athlete from going to another country, especially when Canada is so poor at protecting its athletes.

Now in Canada there are a reported 220 plus cases of athlete sexual abuse that have recently been adjudicated, are in the courts or that are accused. TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY!

Sandra Kirby’s study of sexual abuse of athletes done in the early 2000’s claimed that 20% of females athletes had been sexually abused. And one of those abused athletes said in an interview with Pamela Wallen. “The sexual abuse was bad, but the psychological abuse was worse.”

Athlete abuse — both sexual and psychological — on Canadian National teams is a ‘thing.’

To Kaillie’s caprice: She thinks that she’s so special that she should be given special consideration. It’s been argued that she’s claiming a freebee because of her special status. Fairness and all. Failing to meet an objective standard and all.

In pursuing four-man Kaillie afforded BCS the opportunity to raise, back of napkin, $10 million per quad (four years). This is a bottom-line guesstimate and it could have been much bigger.

Kaillie was taking on extra work, a lot of hassle and facing a wave of sexist bullshit to compete for her country. In doing so she opened a once in BSC’s lifetime sponsorship opportunity. This is Kallie working her tail off to support her team, the whole team including administrative staff salaries.

BCS President, Sarah Storey killed this potential. A core role for association President is fundraising, and she killed the biggest potential fundraising deal in Canadian bobsleigh history.

But there were standards and they were objective. As if…

The arguments of many about this current mashup are whiffy. Many are using the tactic described here in a review of Unbelievable on Netflix:

This is exactly what’s being done to Kaillie — she’s this and she’s that. Most are turning this into a case against her. She’s difficult to like and to work with so that in the ‘he said, she said’ we’ll take the he.

This isn’t about Kaillie, it’s about Todd Hayes. And the question is whether Todd should be coaching in Canada at all. He has been accused of harassment, which seems mild to me.

Todd deliberately seeks to keep his team off-balance so that he can control them. He admits as much. This is, of course, torture for the athletes.

I may be quaint in this view, but psychological torture is psychological abuse is harassment.

Todd trashed the teams going into Korea, mentally and physically, save for Kripps’ whom he left alone. Then he put them through a push-off, full power pushes on the rest week prior to travel to kill them off physically.

It was some coaching performance. Abuse of the head — abuse of the body. All done per Todd’s coaching philosophy which broaches on insanity.

Kaillie says that she can’t work with Todd. No one can work with Todd; you work around Todd. You let the stable genius think he’s controlling you and you do what you can in spite of Todd.

But there is another part of this story. Kaillie owes Todd Hayes an Olympic Gold medal.

Kaillie was languishing in second place after three runs in Sochi — 2014. Todd was coaching the US team. Todd got into Alana Meyers-Taylor’s head after the 3rd run and blew it out. Alana then cratered her 4th run and Kaillie backed into the Gold medal position.

The Americans say that Todd coached, meaning head-f’cked, Alana out of the win. After that Todd was no longer coaching the American team.

The warning from the crew from south of the 49th was that Todd will not stop and that he’ll grind the head and the body of the teams he coaches into dust. He did that in 2018 to the Canadian team save Justin Kripps.

Kaillie Humphries is what I call a hardhead, and a very special type, she’s an extreme hardhead. She is of a type, as was Pierre Lueders.

Hardheads push compulsively to put everything together to compete at the highest level. They are manic in their drive, which is maddening anyone around them and in team situations gets very uncomfortable.

Greta Thunberg, the environmental wunderkind, has Asperger syndrome. She is extraordinary blunt. This irritates a lot of people in positions of power… ‘she’s not nice.’

Greta says that Asperger is her superpower, and Kaillie’s hardhead is hers.

Hardheads produce incredible results, put medals on the table and are the best athletes at Owning the Podium.

Coaches need to be able to relate to these special athletes, to mitigate the impacts of their drive to win on those around those athletes and to the athletes themselves. This is a skill.

As hardheads get closer to their performance their personalities become more abrasive and their behaviors often drive people around them to distraction. It’s the nature of this particular type of performer.

They have a high-performance superpower. Most find them hard to work with, impossible to like. I don’t. For me, they’re easy to work with because they push so hard to get everything done to the smallest of things so that they can performance. They never have to be motivated, although, at times, they need to be moderated.

It’s this superpower that puts a huge number of medals onto the table.

Kaillie tried to go to the US because she’s out of time and the harassment claim has been in the works over a year. This is bad process and its abusive process. She is owed an answer on her claim in very quick order because this ‘performance thing’ is time sensitive.

She made the move not because she wanted to, but because she thought she had to. Did Todd threaten to give her garbage equipment — that’s a firing offense for cause? It’s beyond abusive, and it’s serious mind-fuck.

Some claim she’s going to the USA for kicks and giggles.

By leaving she gives up her place in Canada’s team, and she gives up her sponsors that have taken her a decade or more to put in place. She’s unlikely to be welcomed by the US woman, who lose place, equipment and competitive opportunity.

She’s giving up a lot just to gain her freedom from Todd Hayes. She’s doing this because she legitimately feels that she can not win with Todd Hayes coaching(?) the team. In this, she is –based on Todd’s coaching history — entirely justified.

This storey is about Todd Hayes and his enabler Sarah Storey. And making it about a by-product of Kaillie’s high-performance superpower is just a fog to obscure a Canadian icon getting seriously screwed over.

Should Kaillie stay? Whatever. Despite the ruling against her, a bad one, BSC has no legitimate right to block Kaillie from leaving.

I just hope she fights, because this is stacked against her. She’s getting shafted by BSC, Todd Hayes, Sarah Storey, and by the COA who cravenly hide behind process.

Kaillie is out of time. She has to get back into competition NOW!

She should not sign a team contract that gives an alleged harasser power over her to harasser her further. And the no contract situation gives Todd the power to keep her out of training camps, Canadian icon be damned.

Kaillie doesn’t have to claim harassment. Todd’s coaching is there as a matter of FACT. It was objectively awful and a screaming cause for dismissal.

Underlying this entire episode is Canada’s weird fixation with ‘nice.’ Kaillie is not ‘nice,’ therefore she can be ratf’ked with impunity; on the team and in the press.

Pierre Lueders back in the day wasn’t ‘nice’ either.

As an exercise go back over Canadian bobsleigh history and take out the not-nice athletes medals. What’s left?

Is Todd Hayes suitable, even qualified, to coach in Canada? Are Hayes’ whacky views on coaching and the mental torture he inflicts on athletes as a coaching tactic and condoned by BCS, acceptable in Canada?

Sarah Storey’s role in this ongoing debacle is a grotesque example of bad leadership. So bad that the association should be put under administration, the executive, board, head coach and high performance director removed.

There are standards for athletes and there are standards for the administration and management of national sports organizations. BCS has failed to meet those standards, even minimally.

Kaillie’s extreme dislike-ability, something that is a ‘thing’ and a by-product of her high-performance superpower — is being used to hide a coaching grotesquery on the Canadian team and the real panic that Kaillie has that Todd — as a coaching tactic — will ratf’k her. And he can ratf’k her in multiple ways: take essential equipment away from her, strip her of breakwoman, ‘head-fuck’ her and grind her.

And the response to all of this is the classic ‘blame the victim.’ Kaillie has to be guilty of something and we’ll just make it up, starting with the emotional response to her extreme hard-headedness — she’s not nice, then claim she’s stunting, claim that her ‘demands’ are crazy, and that by trying to escape Todd Hayes that she’s not a real Canadian.

She has earned the right to be heard — clearly heard and understood — above the slim.

Failing to do so is unCanadian.

Add a comment

What is your view?

Send

Related posts:

Why writing Human readable errors would be more and more important ?

I recently worked with a data scientist and he got that got an error with a R code(Rstudio). He tried to install a R library but didn’t succeed with error : “ installation of package…

Helping You in Engaging Meaningful Self Acceptance Activities

Are you someone who always dwells on the past? Do you require assistance to advance in life? Not to worry! We are here to save you from this awkward circumstance! By engaging in the self acceptance…

The Different Styles of Boudoir Photography

Boudoir photography is the practice of taking photographs of women in a private setting to create the most intimate images possible. Its main aim is to create a sensuous, elegant, and appealing image…