From Park City, USA
(December 13, 2023) – Canada’s Pat Norton held of a trio of North Americans to win his first two-man gold of the 2023/2024 North American Cup season.
Norton held a tight lead after one heat, with South Korea’s Jinsu Kim .04 back in second, with Taylor Austin in third only .05 back. USA’s Geoff Gadbois and Kris Horn sat fourth and fifth, all within .18 of the leader.
In the second heat, Horn went first amongst the contenders. He and David Simon put down what would be the fast run of the heat to take the lead from Hyeonggeun Kim. From there, Gadbois and brakeman Bryce Cheek were edged out by Horn, the Taylor Austina nd Chris Ashley tied Horn’s combined downtime to tie for the lead with two sleds to go.
Jinsu Kim and Kyungyeon Lee couldn’t match the pace of the sliders before him and fell to fourth with one sled to go.
Norton and brakeman Keaton Bruggeling matched their first heat start time, and had just as good of a second run going. While the second slide wasn’t quite as fast as the first run, it was enough to give the Canadians a gold by .15 over Austin and Horn, who were tied for second.
The gold for Norton was his second two-man gold in as many seasons.
Austin and Horn tied for silver, with Gadbois finishing in fourth, only .07 out of the medals.
Jinsu Kim and Hyeonggeun Kim rounded out the top six.
USA’s Grady Mercer finished ninth, one spot ahead of Jay Dearborn of Canada. Cyrus Gray of Canada finished 11th, while USA’s Shane Fisher finished 13th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Norton / Bruggeling | CAN | 3 | 5.05 | 5.05 | 48.71 | 48.81 | 1:37.52 |
| 2 | Austin / Ashley | CAN | 5 | 5.16 | 5.14 | 48.76 | 48.91 | 1:37.67 |
| 2 | Horn / Simon | USA | 9 | 5.03 | 5.00 | 48.89 | 48.78 | 1:37.67 |
| 4 | Gadbois / Cheek | USA | 10 | 5.04 | 5.08 | 48.81 | 48.93 | 1:37.74 |
| 5 | Kim / Lee | KOR | 12 | 5.02 | 5.03 | 48.75 | 49.03 | 1:37.78 |
| 6 | Kim / Park | KOR | 4 | 4.99 | 4.97 | 49.15 | 49.21 | 1:38.36 |
| 7 | Edelman / Dunn | ISR | 8 | 5.24 | 5.22 | 49.44 | 49.60 | 1:39.04 |
| 8 | Scott / Forst | AUS | 6 | 5.27 | 5.32 | 49.68 | 50.38 | 1:40.06 |
| 9 | Mercer / Radik | USA | 2 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 50.09 | 50.36 | 1:40.45 |
| 10 | Dearborn / M’Pindou | CAN | 13 | 5.10 | 5.13 | 50.51 | 50.45 | 1:40.96 |
| 11 | Gray / de Guzman | CAN | 14 | 5.17 | 5.19 | 50.68 | 50.48 | 1:41.16 |
| 12 | Peters / Mazzolini-Flynn | AUS | 7 | 5.55 | 5.72 | 51.31 | 51.31 | 1:42.62 |
| 13 | Fisher / Townsend | USA | 1 | 5.70 | 5.65 | 51.46 | 51.48 | 1:42.92 |
| 14 | Spiliopoulos / Allon | ISR | 11 | 5.57 | 5.51 | 51.82 | 51.71 | 1:43.53 |
