Kaillie Humphries grabs big monobob lead in search of 1st Olympic medal as American

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:

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:

Laura Nolte of Germany was third in 2:10.32, and three-time Olympic medallist Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was right