The Badass Women Who Are Changing Bobsledding

Late last month, the USA's Elana Meyers-Taylor and Canada's Kaillie Humphries did something they've done countless times over the last seven years. They slotted the runners on their bobsleds into ruts on the ice at the starting line in Calgary, Canada; they grabbed the sled handles; they pushed with all their might. As people cheered, and maybe a cowbell or two rang, they hopped into the driver's seat of their respective sleds and piloted them to medal finishes—in this case silver and bronze, respectively.

The race was part of the North American Cup. Outside of the Olympics, bobsledding, like most racing sports, operates on a pyramid structure. At the very top is the World Cup circuit, where bobsledding's elite compete. Just below that is the Intercontinental Cup followed by the North American and Europa Cups. Both Meyers-Taylor and Humphries are Olympic medal winners and typically race on the World Cup circuit. Humphries is actually the reigning World Cup champion. Stepping down and medaling in the North American Cup is sort of like Lewis Hamilton, the Formula 1 champion, turning up in Formula 3 and taking third.

What made this different was that both Humphries and Meyers-Taylor were piloting four-man sleds. They were the first women to ever medal doing so.

They certainly won't be the last.

Historically, women weren't even allowed to compete with men in four-man teams. And because the women's category doesn't include a four-person sled, the only option was the smaller, two-person sleds. That all changed in September, when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) made four-man sledding gender neutral.

"We follow the spirit and movements of our time," said Ivo Ferriani, FIBT president, when announcing the news in September. "There is a strong belief in the FIBT that men and women can compete together in 4-man. Therefore the Executive Committee decided to support equal opportunities for men and women in that discipline."

The rule change isn't just important from a gender-equality perspective. It's genuinely exciting news for a sport that really has just one skill position: the pilot.

"Some of the best drivers in the world are women," Will Golder, a British pilot, told the BBC in September.

In Bobsledding, the three pushers are primarily responsible for weight and speed, for creating momentum. It's the pilot's job not to squander any of that momentum as the sled hurtles down the ice. Now, all pilots will have access to the same engine room: sleds powered by huge men, many of whom come from rugby and athletics backgrounds, and heavier sleds. In a sport that's all about momentum, sled weight makes a huge difference. Four-man sleds are much heavier and a bit faster than their two-man counterparts. (Weight differences from a smaller, female pilot can be made up with ballast.)

For Meyers-Taylor and Humphries, this opportunity was a long time coming. The two pilots have lobbied to compete with men for much of their careers. (It's especially sweet for Meyers-Taylor. One of her sled's pushers, Nic Taylor, is her husband.)

Oh, and that race in the North American Cup? That was just a formality. In order to qualify for the World Cup, pilots must demonstrate competence on the bigger sleds by completing four races in the Europa or North American Cups, something both women accomplished yesterday, in a Europa Cup event in La Pagne, France. In France, neither woman medaled, but just making it down the mountain was all they needed to do.

Meyers-Taylor and Humphries expect to take part in the second leg of the World Cup circuit, back in Calgary, later this month. When the season finishes, we might, for the first time, have an idea of who the best pilot in the world really is.