Opinion: Bobsled gold medalist Kaillie Humphries is driven by her newest title: American

Correction/clarification: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized the journey bobsledder Kaillie Humphries took to get to Germany in time for competition. She flew out of San Diego.

Kaillie Humphries has lived in the United States for more than five years now. Worn the red, white and blue in international competition the last three seasons. Heard the Star-Spangled Banner played in her honor.

But there is something different about representing a country and representing your country.

For the first time last weekend, the world’s best bobsledder raced as an American citizen, having just been sworn in Thursday. Did her new country proud, too, winning both the monobob and two-man races in Altenberg, Germany.

“I really do feel that the strength that I drew from actually being able to be an American citizen now – the stress of worrying about, 'Am I going to be able to go to the Games? Am I going to be able to represent this country to the best of my ability at the Olympics?’, that is now gone, and I had more capacity, definitely, to focus just on sport and being the best that I could be without those little thoughts,” Humphries told USA TODAY Sports on Monday.

“I know that it's passed, that it all worked and the application was approved and that Immigration feels that I'm worthy of citizenship,” she added. “That's always how I felt, but it's nice to know that somebody else also feels that way and that I am an American citizen now. So it definitely provided an extra little boost of energy last weekend for sure.”

Humphries won the 2010 and 2014 gold medals in two-man bobsled, as well as a bronze in 2018, while representing Canada, where she was born. In 2019 she asked for her release, revealing that she had filed a formal complaint a year earlier alleging verbal and emotional abuse by Todd Hays, Team Canada’s bobsled coach.

The case is ongoing, with the findings of one investigation tossed out and Hays suing Humphries for defamation.

Canada granted Humphries her release, clearing her to compete for the United States beginning with the 2019-20 season. But the International Olympic Committee requires athletes to be citizens of the countries they represent at the Games, and Humphries was initially told her application for U.S. citizenship wouldn’t be approved in time for the Beijing Olympics.

Bolstered by a small army of supporters, she made the case that she qualified for an expedited approval.

“We didn’t ask for special treatment,” John Exner, Humphries’ immigration attorney, said last week. “But I knew she had an approvable case. She did from the get-go.”

Her status still up in the air, Humphries headed to Europe last month for the World Cup races that serve as the qualifiers for Beijing. When U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services scheduled Humphries’ final interview for last Thursday in San Diego, it set off a whirlwind worthy of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

There are required practice sessions for each race, so Humphries got those in Tuesday. On Wednesday, she traveled to Frankfurt, flew to Los Angeles and drove to San Diego. On Thursday, she was at USCIS at 7:30 a.m. to take her citizenship exam, which has 10 out of a possible 100 questions on everything from U.S. history to geography.

“What's the longest river in the U.S.? Name a state that borders Canada or one that borders Mexico?” Humphries said. “Who was the president during World War I?”

“I was not going to fail this test,” she said. “We spent months, my husband and I, studying before I knew every question.”

An interview followed – “my little like heart-rate monitor was going off the roof. I pretty much did an entire workout in about three hours sitting in that room” – and then Humphries waited while her application was reviewed.

Finally, someone came and told her that she had been granted citizenship.

“It was just – it's hard to explain. It's like happiness and relief and just an overwhelming feeling of joy at the exact same point,” Humphries said.

To be clear, Humphries did not become a U.S. citizen just so she could compete at an Olympics. She has lived in the United States since 2016. Her grandfather was American as is her husband, former bobsledder Travis Armbruster, whom Humphries married in 2019.

“I wanted to become an American,” Humphries said. “This is more than just sport. It's a way of life. It's who I am becoming. And I think there was much more to it than just one opportunity at the end of the rainbow.”

But it was Beijing that created the urgency in the process. Now that she’s eligible, Humphries has to secure her spot on the U.S. team for the Olympics, which begin Feb. 4. To qualify, Humphries must be in the top 20 in the world rankings. She’s currently second in monobob and fourth in two-man.

So after her swearing-in ceremony, Humphries drove back to the San Diego airport and caught a red-eye to Germany, where she arrived Friday. She raced on Saturday and Sunday, having not trained since Tuesday.

It helped that Altenberg is one of Humphries’ favorite venues, the same track where she has won three world titles over the last two seasons. But she was motivated by her newest title, too, and the knowledge that the years of worry and work to achieve it had been worth it.

“It's not necessarily where I live only, or the family that I married into. It's a part of who I am now,” Humphries said. “I am an American citizen.

“It's an honor to be able to represent a country that believes in me, that's offered me an opportunity to continue sport in a safe environment,” she said. “And I'm going to do the very best that I can.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Beijing Olympics: Kaillie Humphries wins bobsled races as US citizen