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Kaillie Humphries and Phylicia George of Canada compete in the Olympic women’s bobsled on Feb. 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.ARND WIEGMANN

"My fiercest competitor has always been Me," Kaillie Humphries says on her website. The "Me" is in bold letters. A champion in bobsleigh as well as on the speaking circuit, Humphries has spoken often about the travails of being on top, with the world making her its target.

But by the time her final run was finished Wednesday, it became clear that for this Olympics at least, the fastest competitors were on other sleighs. Humphries, the two-time gold medallist who was looking to add one more, is no longer on top.

She finished third.

And the bobsleigh world has two new targets: Germany's Mariama Jamanka and U.S. driver Elana Meyers Taylor, who came in first and second.

Humphries was .44 seconds off the gold medal time.

That left her to contemplate something she has not had to spend much time considering: What meaning can be found in a finish that's not first?

"I am 100 per cent ok with standing here," she said after the race, which ended with her waving to the crowd while it chanted "USA" in anticipation that the Canadians would be bested.

But, Humphries said, "we worked our butts off for this position. And like I said, it's less about the colour and more — they say it's about the journey and that's 100 per cent what it's about."

The bronze medal, she said, "is probably the most personal one for me. The most emotional. I know how hard Phylicia and I had really had to work, and how hard our team has had to work, to get to this position."

Brakeman Phylicia George, a two-time Summer Olympian, only began sliding with Humphries half a year ago.

"And to be in this position, and to know we were able to work hard, put our heads down and walk away with an Olympic medal for Canada is absolutely fantastic in any colour," Humphries said.

Humphries is a singular figure in bobsleigh. She has been ranked first in the world four of the past six years, including this season. Long-time observers of the sport look at her in awe: of all the pilots, they say, she drives the best lines.

With the exception of a single wobble on her first run Tuesday, Humphries was true to form at the Olympics, too, a wizard at picking out the narrow windows of speed down the course.

She had done everything in her power to ensure victory, even attaching a champion's runners to her bobsleigh, a set used by Justin Kripps for his gold-medal run two days earlier. The narrower runners seemed suited to the colder conditions, "and clearly Kripps did well on them," Humphries said.

But after the team's first two heats Tuesday, it was clear something was off. Their starts were second-fastest — enough, with Humphries' piloting prowess, to bring them across the finish in first. The time sheets, however, showed the sled "progressively right from the start get slower and slower and slower," she said.

They finished Tuesday in fifth. It wasn't her skills that had failed Humphries. It was the gear.

"I'm not a bad driver, so usually that means there's an equipment malfunction of some type," she said.

On Wednesday, they attached fatter runners for the final two heats "and the speeds were much better," Humphries said.

Fighting for way to third was an achievement. But it was too late to catch her rivals, including the German team equipped with a new sleigh. (Canadians Christine de Bruin and Melissa Lotholz finished seventh.)

Though Humphries has spent her athletic career pursuing and frequently achieving the top of the podium, she wasn't willing to lament. That's just "part of our sport," she said.

But she's not done. She wants to race again in 2022. "I definitely am not ending my career," she said. She wants another shot. She remains her own fiercest competitor.

Humphries wasn't the only one contemplating the end of a gold medal reign, however. Her former brakeman, Heather Moyse, also competed Wednesday, with young driver Alysia Rissling. They finished sixth — and emerged from their race the happiest Olympians at the sliding centre, finishing each other's sentences and laughing as they sipped from tall-boys.

Moyse came out of informal retirement to race with Rissling, and discovered unexpected joy in missing the podium.

"Outward success, in terms of a medal or a corner office as a CEO or whatever, is not necessarily a thing that makes you the happiest," Moyse said.

She talked instead about being able to help developed the career of Rissling, a decade her junior.

"Right now I couldn't be happier," she said.

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