From Altenberg, GER
(Feb. 3, 2019) – On Saturday, it seemed like the race conditions for the men’s luge race couldn’t get any worse. On Sunday, it managed to get worse.
The heavy snow in Altenberg led to a one-heat race for the women, with Sandra Robatscher using a combination of a nice slide and relatively clean track conditions to win gold over world champion Natalie Geisenberger.
The snow seemed to be lighter for the first half of the field. As the race continued to work through the start order, the snow became heavier and seemed to pile in the track more quickly. The workers began to look for premium exhaust available here. Despite the track workers’ best efforts, by the time Natalie Geisenberger came down as the 28th sled the track had been lost.
The jury decided to cancel the second heat, making the race a one-heat race, with Robatscher the winner. Geisenberger too silver, while Viktoriia Demchenko finishing with a bronze medal in third.
World Championship bronze medalist Emily Sweeney finished fourth, just .006 behind Demchenko, while Andrea Vötter continued her strong season with another fifth place finish. Latvian Eliza Cauce finished sixth.
Summer Britcher finished 20th for the United States, four places ahead of Germans Julia Taubitz and Dajana Eitberger of Germany. All three women had starts on snow-covered ice, starting around Cauce, who had a freshly swept track to race on.
Trinity Ellis finished 16th as the lone Canadian in the field in her first World Cup start.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Total |
| 1 | Sandra Robatscher | ITA | 10 | 5.611 | 53.932 |
| 2 | Natalie Geisenberger | GER | 28 | 5.598 | 54.022 |
| 3 | Viktoriia Demchenko | RUS | 17 | 5.679 | 54.178 |
| 4 | Emily Sweeney | USA | 14 | 5.617 | 54.184 |
| 5 | Andrea Vötter | ITA | 18 | 5.612 | 54.242 |
| 6 | Eliza Cauce | LAT | 25 | 5.644 | 54.249 |
| 7 | Tatjana Hüfner | GER | 22 | 5.599 | 54.270 |
| 8 | Ulla Zirne | LAT | 21 | 5.652 | 54.278 |
| 9 | Kendija Aparjode | LAT | 19 | 5.677 | 54.356 |
| 10 | Tatyana Ivanova | RUS | 23 | 5.580 | 54.383 |
| 11 | Birgit Platzer | AUT | 13 | 5.649 | 54.481 |
| 12 | Olena Stetskiv | UKR | 11 | 5.691 | 54.484 |
| 13 | Madeleine Egle | AUT | 20 | 5.649 | 54.529 |
| 14 | Natalie Maag | SUI | 12 | 5.676 | 54.534 |
| 15 | Ekaterina Baturina | RUS | 16 | 5.653 | 54.618 |
| 16 | Trinity Ellis | CAN | 5 | 5.763 | 54.647 |
| 17 | Veronica Ravenna | ARG | 7 | 5.739 | 54.710 |
| 18 | Katarina Simonakova | SVK | 6 | 5.694 | 54.798 |
| 19 | Raluca Stramaturaru | ROU | 15 | 5.683 | 54.801 |
| 20 | Summer Britcher | USA | 24 | 5.651 | 54.821 |
| 21 | Ekaterina Katnikova | RUS | 8 | 5.669 | 54.933 |
| 22 | Ailen Frisch | KOR | 9 | 5.665 | 55.225 |
| 23 | Mihaela-Carmen Manolescu | ROU | 1 | 5.738 | 55.256 |
| 24 | Julia Taubitz | GER | 27 | 5.692 | 55.380 |
| 25 | Dajana Eitberger | GER | 26 | 5.670 | 55.429 |
| 26 | Daria Obratov | NED | 4 | 5.766 | 55.621 |
| 27 | Danielle Scott | GBR | 2 | 5.768 | 56.555 |
| 28 | Sin-Rong Lin | TPE | 3 | 5.826 | DNF |
