The Olympic Champion Taking On The Left’s War Over Women’s Sports

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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One of the most decorated bobsledders in history, Kaillie Humphries has it all: six Olympic medals, a loving marriage, and the most adorable son. And after teaming up with XX-XY Athletics in 2026, she’s inspiring women everywhere to go after their dreams. 

Humphries knows a little something about beating the odds. She gave birth to her son Aulden in 2024, and just 18 months later, she won two medals at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. 

“It is possible to achieve everything you want to achieve,” she tells The Daily Wire. “But it is gonna take work and sacrifice, and there will be some hardships along the way. I’m not gonna say that doesn’t exist because that wouldn’t be truthful.”

 

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Unafraid to stand her ground, Humphries makes a natural fit for XX-XY. Since its founding by former Levi Strauss exec Jennifer Sey in 2024, the activewear brand has been dedicated to normalizing women’s sports for biological girls and women. The mission? For athletes to “simply be afforded the chance to compete on an even playing field.” 

In the battle over Title IX, which was once designed to provide women equal opportunity in sports, XX-XY offered sanctuary from Biden-era policies that allowed an intact man claiming to be a “woman” to strip down in front of female swimmers and, in another case, spike a volleyball so hard it led to another athlete’s concussion during a high school game. Adding insult to injury, biological male athletes regularly broke women’s records, stole nearly 900 women’s medals, and hijacked hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and scholarships. 

The devastating fallout was no surprise. Men are stronger, faster, taller, leaner, and more muscular and have larger lung capacity than women. Period. Extremely limited research showed that “physical performance of nonathletic trans people who have undergone [gender-affirming hormone therapy] for at least two years approaches that of cisgender controls.” It wasn’t close to being fair.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring an end to the war on women’s sports in 2025. But for Humphries, who spent her entire career advocating for equality in bobsledding, some battle scars last a lifetime.

She’s currently the women’s athlete rep for the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, competing for the U.S. on the world stage, but back when she was a citizen of her native Canada, Humphries was forced to advocate for a fair shake. 

“When I first started in the sport, women didn’t compete on all the same bobsled tracks,” she says. “We weren’t good enough, is what we were told, so we were given the easy tracks, the soft tracks. I had to go compete against the men with an all-women’s crew at the World Cup because that was the only way they were going to allow us to showcase that we are skilled enough, fast enough, strong enough. I was told no one wants to see women crash. Women can’t do this. You can’t move the weight. It’s too dangerous.” 

If this sounds like some kind of vintage vision of sports, Humphries says the balance was still off as recently as 2018. “[Women] didn’t have equal medal opportunity for four of the six Olympics I’ve been to,” she explains. “The men were getting a lot more prize money than the women were getting for the exact same stuff. There were some races when you were given, like, a cheese plate, and the guys were getting prize money.” 

Humphries was also advised that she’d lose her competitive edge if she got pregnant. But instead of abiding by other people’s limits, she followed her gut.

The number of women who let go of career or family goals because they believe both can’t exist is uncountable. Humphries wants to change that. She established her TrailblazeHER foundation to support elite female athletes with financial assistance and wellness resources as they go for Olympic and Paralympic gold. 

So how can every woman go all in off the bobsled track? Whether it’s bench pressing a few pounds or learning to play the piano, start by believing in yourself. “Find your people, chase your dreams … don’t listen to the limitations that people put on you,” Humphries says. “It’s the greatest satisfaction when we can be the best versions of ourselves by showing up for our goals and dreams.” 

Along with her dedicated mental game, she attributes her success to her stellar support system and suggests surrounding yourself with your biggest fans. “It might be the friend down the street, it might be a grandparent, whoever it is, a coach, a therapist, stick close to those people.” It’s not uncommon for Humphries to train alongside her husband, her son, and her team among the many people equally dedicated to her goals. 

In 2021, Humphries became an American citizen so she could compete for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics. Five years later, in May 2026, she accepted her third invitation to the White House to be honored at a Mother’s Day event in the Rose Garden. Her chic cherry blossom pink suit put a demure spin on her signature tattoos. 

When I ask her what her next bit of ink might be, she confirms “something for Cortina,” but also shares some news. “Hopefully we can get pregnant again, and then that will change what tattoo I want to get.” After we joke that the only open real estate left may be her face and neck, she laughs, “My face? Never. My dad would shoot me.” What she doesn’t completely rule out is a seventh run at the Olympics. 

 

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So will training like Kaillie Humphries in head-to-toe XX-XY help you nab the gold? Along with a supportive team and a positive mindset, a fresh fit certainly lends the confidence boost for that next challenge — even if it’s groceries. But the real magic happens when you take the first step.

“Tiny steps are still steps,” Humphries says. “Nobody’s an expert overnight. What looks like big jumps are really little steps in process and work. Focus on the little wins, and work on those steps to get to the goal.”