From Lillehammer, NOR
(November 30, 2023) – Romania’s Andreea Grecu has come close a handful of times over the course of her career as a bobsled pilot, and on Thursday she kicked off the 2023/2024 IBSF Europe Cup season with her first career monobob gold medal.
Grecu started 12th in the first heat and set the quick time of the heat by just .11 over Germany’s Maureen Zimmer, the current junior world champion. In third sat Austria’s Kati Beierl, making her first competitive start since recovering from a small stroke during the previous year’s offseason.
On the second run Beierl put down a quick and clean run to take the lead handily over Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll, with only Zimmer and Grecu to go. Zimmer, in turn, matched Beierl’s second run time to maintain a .13 second advantage to take the lead in search of her third straight Europe Cup gold dating back to the previous year.
That left Grecu. On a track where she’d previously won a pair of gold medals in two-woman bobsled, the Romanian pilot tied Zimmer’s first heat push for the quickest of the race. She then beat the German at every split down the 1994 Olympic track and took gold by .26, giving her a first career monbob gold.
Zimmer’s silver was her seventh in eight career EC starts in the discipline, while Beierl scored bronze in what was her first career women’s monobob start on the Europe Cup circuit.
Nicoll, Great Britain’s lone pilot in the race, scored a career-best fourth place finish in just her sixth start in the discipline.
Switzerland’s Inola Blatty made her Europe Cup debut with a fifth place finish, while Czechia’s Patricia Tajcnarova finished sixth.
Australia’s Sarah Blizzard finished 12th in her first ever race in Lillehammer.
Longtime IndyCar, V8 Supercars and Formula E driver Simona de Silvestro made her international bobsled debut with a 15th place finish. The Italian moved up one spot from 16th after the first heat and finished 1.6 seconds off of the gold medal pace.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 12 | 5.69 | 5.68 | 55.64 | 55.88 | 1:51.52 |
| 2 | Maureen Zimmer | GER | 10 | 5.66 | 5.68 | 55.75 | 56.03 | 1:51.78 |
| 3 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 20 | 5.81 | 5.83 | 55.88 | 56.03 | 1:51.91 |
| 4 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 6 | 5.79 | 5.82 | 55.89 | 56.34 | 1:52.23 |
| 5 | Inola Blatty | SUI | 18 | 5.80 | 5.80 | 56.18 | 56.07 | 1:52.25 |
| 6 | Patricia Tajcnarova | CZE | 8 | 5.83 | 5.85 | 56.09 | 56.28 | 1:52.37 |
| 7 | Debora Annen | SUI | 19 | 5.85 | 5.86 | 56.22 | 56.17 | 1:52.39 |
| 8 | Lida Weiszewski | POL | 7 | 5.74 | 5.77 | 56.05 | 56.35 | 1:52.40 |
| 8 | Kelly Van Petegem | BEL | 13 | 5.87 | 5.89 | 56.29 | 56.11 | 1:52.40 |
| 10 | Loren Djolo | NED | 2 | 5.85 | 5.83 | 56.17 | 56.42 | 1:52.59 |
| 11 | Diana Filipszki | GER | 1 | 6.00 | 6.98 | 56.22 | 56.44 | 1:52.66 |
| 12 | Sarah Blizzard | AUS | 9 | 5.92 | 5.91 | 56.28 | 56.47 | 1:52.75 |
| 13 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 4 | 5.97 | 6.06 | 56.18 | 56.65 | 1:52.83 |
| 14 | Charlotte Candrix | GER | 14 | 5.90 | 5.90 | 56.31 | 56.56 | 1:52.87 |
| 15 | Simona de Silvestro | ITA | 16 | 6.00 | 6.09 | 56.54 | 56.58 | 1:53.12 |
| 16 | Lea Haslwanter | AUT | 5 | 5.87 | 5.85 | 56.44 | 56.91 | 1:53.35 |
| 17 | Robin Post | NED | 3 | 6.26 | 6.31 | 56.69 | 57.09 | 1:53.78 |
| 18 | Julia Slupecka | POL | 11 | 6.19 | 6.13 | 57.18 | 56.96 | 1:54.14 |
| 19 | Maria Sanches | BRA | 17 | 6.70 | 6.67 | 59.24 | 59.00 | 1:58.24 |
| 20 | Tainara Mees | BRA | 15 | 6.88 | 6.73 | 59.40 | 58.89 | 1:58.29 |