Kaillie Humphries grabs big monobob lead in search of 1st Olympic medal as AmericanCompeting for the first time in the Olympics as an American citizen, Calgary-born Kaillie Humphries has grabbed control of the inaugural monobob competition at the Beijing Olympics.

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Canada's Christine De Bruins sits 2nd through 2 heats, more than 1 second behind

Tim Reynolds · The Associated Press(Dmitri Lovetsky/The Associated Press)comments

Usually at the midway point of an Olympic women's bobsleigh race, the standings are super close.

Not this one.

Kaillie Humphries' first day of Olympic competition for the United States was a runaway, putting the American in complete control of the inaugural women's monobob race. She leads Christine de Bruin of Stony Plain, Alta. — her former teammate — by 1.04 seconds, by far the biggest halftime lead in Olympic women's bobsleigh history.

"It wasn't perfect," Humphries said.

WATCH | Humphries slides to lead at halfway point:

Competing for the U.S., Kaillie Humphries opens up big lead in 1st Olympic monobob event

23 hours agoDuration 4:54Competing for the first time in the Olympics as an American citizen, double-Olympic women's bobsleigh champion and reigning monobob world champion Kaillie Humphries has a 1.04 second lead over Canada's Christine de Bruin, after two of four runs in the inaugural Olympic monobob competition.4:54

The standings suggest otherwise. The five previous women's bobsleigh competitions at the Olympics — all of them being the two-person variety, unlike this new driver-only discipline — have seen the midpoint leader ahead of the field by an average of 0.16 seconds. The biggest halftime lead ever was 0.29 seconds.

That is, until Sunday. Nobody was within 0.30 seconds of Humphries in the first heat, nobody was within 0.36 seconds of Humphries in the second heat. She'll return to the track at the Yanqing Sliding Center on Monday morning, knowing she's two clean runs away from what would be the third gold medal of her career.

"You pretend like today didn't exist and have a fresh race tomorrow," Humphries said. "Easier said than done, I can promise you that. But at the end of the day, I've had practice at doing it. And I've won, and I've lost in this position. And tomorrow is a brand new day. ... I have to continue to put my best foot forward."

De Bruin's time was 2:10.14.

"It's a consistency race," de Bruin, 29, said. "Anything can happen."

WATCH | de Bruin sits silver with 2 heats to go:

Christine de Bruin in 2nd midway through Olympic monobob competition

24 hours agoDuration 3:54Christine de Bruin of Stony Plain, Alta., was 1.04 seconds behind leader Kaillie Humphries of the United States following the second of four runs in the inaugural Olympic women's monobob competition.Kripps, de Bruin, Appiah headline formidable Canadian bobsleigh team at Beijing Games

(editor：)