Kaillie Humphries, a decorated bobsled athlete who changed her competitive nationality from Canada to the United States in 2019, provoked a wave of online criticism after presenting President Donald Trump with the Order of Ikkos during a White House ceremony this week.
The Order of Ikkos, named for the earliest recorded Olympic coach in ancient Greece and established by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in 2008, is given by Team USA medal-winning athletes to a coach, mentor or another individual deemed instrumental to their success. Humphries, 40, who won two bronze medals at last month’s Milano Cortina Olympics, became emotional as she placed the medal on the president at a Thursday event honoring women.
During her remarks, Humphries explicitly acknowledged what she described as Trump’s impact on women’s sport. She said: "I want to recognise the support and the impact you’ve had on women’s sports throughout the Olympic movement. Specifically, standing up to keep biological women in women’s sports, to keep the field of play safe and allow for fair competition."
She also linked presidential policy to fertility access, saying: "Furthermore, because your policies are creating greater access to IVF, so families like mine can continue to grow as I look to expand my family again. I believe this actually makes you the first president in history to ever be awarded an Order of Ikkos. So, thank you."
Trump, who signed an executive order in February 2025 to exclude transgender girls and women from female-designated sporting competitions, and another order that same month intended to expand access to IVF and reduce its costs, appeared surprised by the presentation. After posing for photographs with Humphries, she returned to the microphone and said, "Isn’t he just the best? He’s the best." The president replied, "I knew I liked her."
Video of the exchange circulated widely on social media platforms and attracted critical commentary. One user on X wrote, "I’m embarrassed for Canada. You can keep her," while another said, "Thank goodness she doesn’t compete for Canada any longer." The comments highlight the polarized reception to Humphries’ public praise of the president and his policies.
Requests to USA Bobsled/Skeleton for assistance in contacting Humphries, and for comment on her behalf, were not immediately answered.
Humphries’ competitive record spans multiple Olympic cycles and two national affiliations. She won Olympic gold for Canada in the two-woman bobsled at Vancouver in 2010 and again at Sochi in 2014, and took bronze at Pyeongchang in 2018. After switching allegiance to the United States in 2019, she captured the first-ever Olympic gold in monobob for the United States at the 2022 Winter Games, and then added two bronze medals to her Olympic tally at the Milano Cortina Games last month.
The episode underscores intersections between elite sport, public policy and social media reactions, with an established athlete publicly linking specific presidential actions to competitive fairness and reproductive access. The immediate institutional response from her sport's national organization remained pending as public debate continued online.