From Winterberg, GER
(January 7, 2023) – It took until the last race of 2022 for Germany’s Laura Nolte to win gold in the women’s monobob discipline. It only took seven days into 2023 for her to win her first of the year as she took gold in Winterberg.
Nolte sat fourth after the first heat of competition, .01 behind the United States’ Kaillie Humphries in third, while Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler and Germany’s Lisa Buckwitz sat first and second looking for their first career gold medals.
On the second run Nolte put down the quickest run of the competition to put the pressure on the women ahead of her. Humphries was next, and though she had a slide that looked to be just as smooth as Nolte’s, the speed wasn’t there and she fell behind the German.
Buckwitz, the 2018 Olympic gold medal brakewoman, was next. While the top half of her run was clean, things fell apart from Curve 9 onward as she plummeted out of the medals to eventually finish fourth.
That left Hasler, who coming into the event had lingered around the medals all season long. Her drive, while relatively clean, was just not quick enough to contend with the leaders. She fell down the order to finish seventh, giving the win to Nolte.
The gold for Nolte was her second straight in monobob, while the silver for Humphries was her fourth straight medal in the discipline.
Germany’s Kim Kalicki rallied from fifth to win her first monobob medal with a bronze.
Buckwitz finished fourth, Bree Walker of Australia fifth, while Romania’s Andreea Grecu set the second quickest time of the second heat to slide into sixth.
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah put down a really solid second run to move up from 11th to eighth, finishing one spot ahead of Whistler gold medalist Bianca Ribi in ninth.
Outside of Humphries, the American squad was very new to World Cup action in Europe. Ncole Vogt finished 12th in her first ever World Cup start in Europe, while Riley Tejcek finished 15th in her first monobob race in Winterberg.
At the halfway point of the 2022/2023 monobob World Cup season, Kaillie Humphries leads Laura Nolte by 35 points in the overall standings, with Lisa Buckwitz and Kim Kalicki separated by ten points for third and fourth. Melanie Hasler is fifth, just ahead of Cynthia Appiah and Bianca Ribi.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Laura Nolte | GER | 7 | 5.96 | 5.95 | 59.82 | 59.72 | 1:59.54 |
| 2 | Kaillie Humphries | USA | 13 | 5.95 | 5.94 | 59.81 | 59.91 | 1:59.72 |
| 3 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 12 | 6.02 | 6.03 | 59.91 | 59.82 | 1:59.73 |
| 4 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 11 | 5.82 | 5.82 | 59.70 | 60.07 | 1:59.77 |
| 5 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 9 | 5.92 | 5.92 | 59.96 | 59.84 | 1:59.80 |
| 6 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 15 | 5.90 | 5.91 | 60.02 | 59.80 | 1:59.82 |
| 7 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 8 | 5.99 | 5.97 | 59.67 | 60.16 | 1:59.83 |
| 8 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 6 | 5.88 | 5.88 | 60.21 | 59.92 | 2:00.13 |
| 9 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 10 | 6.02 | 6.04 | 60.00 | 60.14 | 2:00.14 |
| 10 | Qing Ying | CHN | 14 | 5.95 | 5.99 | 60.14 | 60.26 | 2:00.40 |
| 11 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 1 | 6.00 | 6.01 | 60.19 | 60.48 | 2:00.67 |
| 12 | Nicole Vogt | USA | 5 | 6.39 | 6.39 | 60.79 | 60.67 | 2:01.46 |
| 13 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 3 | 6.38 | 6.39 | 60.85 | 60.71 | 2:01.56 |
| 14 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 2 | 6.32 | 6.33 | 61.04 | 60.71 | 2:01.75 |
| 15 | Riley Tejcek | USA | 4 | 6.39 | 6.32 | 61.34 | 61.00 | 2:02.34 |
