From Igls, AUT
(February 11, 2023) – Germany’s Lisa Buckwitz is no stranger to winning gold medals on the biggest stages in sliding. She’s a 2018 Olympic gold medalist, and coming into Saturday’s monobob race she had five World Cup gold medals to her name.
But those were all from the back seat. In the penultimate women’s monobob World Cup race of the season, Buckwitz finally drove herself to a gold medal.
Buckwitz broke the track record on her first run on her way to a .11 second advantage over Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries, with a bevy of women behind them in the hunt for medals.
On the second run Buckwitz wasn’t the quickest of the group, but her second drive was plenty enough to keep her ahead of the crowd as she won her first World Cup gold medal as a pilot.
Behind Buckwitz, Humphries had an uncharacteristic drive marred with a handful of small errors that built up overtime that dropped her out of the medals and eventually into fourth place. That gave Bree Walker the advantage as the Australian moved into the silver medal position for her second medal on the season.
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah tied her own start record in the second heat and backed it up with a clean and quick second run that was enough to move her from sixth to third for her fourth monobob medal on the season.
Humphries finished fourth, just .03 out of the medals, while China’s Qing Ying and world champion Laura Nolte rounded out the top six in a tie for fifth place.
USA’s Nicole Vogt put down two solid drives to finish just outside of the top ten in 11th. Teammate Riley Compton finished in 14th on her second ever visit to Igls.
Despite the fourth place finish, Humphries still pulled away from Laura Nolte in the World Cup title hunt. With one race to go, Humphries has a 73 point lead over Nolte and can clinch a title in Sigulda with a finish of ninth or better. Cynthia Appiah is third overall, ahead of Kim Kalicki and Lisa Buckwitz, who round out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 4 | 5.83 | 5.78 | 54.49 | 54.71 | 1:49.20 |
| 2 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 6 | 5.92 | 5.86 | 54.70 | 54.68 | 1:49.38 |
| 3 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 7 | 5.86 | 5.76 | 54.79 | 54.63 | 1:49.42 |
| 4 | Kaillie Humphries | USA | 8 | 5.95 | 5.92 | 54.60 | 54.85 | 1:49.45 |
| 5 | Qing Ying | CHN | 5 | 5.93 | 5.92 | 54.78 | 54.97 | 1:49.75 |
| 5 | Laura Nolte | GER | 13 | 5.98 | 5.97 | 54.74 | 55.01 | 1:49.75 |
| 7 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 9 | 6.01 | 5.96 | 54.93 | 55.08 | 1:50.01 |
| 8 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 10 | 6.03 | 6.03 | 55.05 | 55.05 | 1:50.10 |
| 9 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 2 | 6.03 | 5.99 | 55.12 | 55.16 | 1:50.28 |
| 10 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 12 | 5.96 | 5.94 | 55.11 | 55.39 | 1:50.50 |
| 11 | Nicole Vogt | USA | 11 | 6.44 | 6.43 | 55.69 | 55.90 | 1:51.59 |
| 12 | Kelly van Petegem | BEL | 16 | 6.21 | 6.20 | 55.91 | 55.89 | 1:51.80 |
| 12 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 14 | 6.28 | 5.31 | 55.77 | 56.03 | 1:51.80 |
| 14 | Riley Compton | USA | 1 | 6.33 | 6.32 | 55.91 | 56.03 | 1:51.94 |
| 15 | Lea Haslwanter | AUT | 15 | 5.99 | 6.05 | 55.82 | 56.25 | 1:52.07 |
| 16 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 3 | 6.29 | 6.29 | 56.32 | 56.11 | 1:52.43 |
