From Igls, AUT
(December 15, 2023) – The track conditions were wildly different between the two heats in Igls, and for some that made a big difference. But for Lisa Buckwitz none of it mattered as she set the quick time in each heat on her way to a gold medal in Igls.
After one heat Germany’s Buckwitz held a .15 second advantage over teammate Laura Nolte, with Australia’s Breeana Walker only .01 behind Nolte. Kaysha Love, the previous week’s winner in the monobob season opener, sat fourth.
During the break between the two heats the snow and fog let up and the track picked up a bit of speed. The earlier sliders of the second heat, those who’d struggled a bit in the first, saw their downtimes drop significantly. Outside of Viktoria Cernanska, who hit the wall at the start of her first run and picked up nearly two seconds, nearly everyone else early on found between a half to a full second of time in their second run.
That all led to some better start times and quicker downtimes for the contenders. Walker, one of the sports better starters, lowered her start time from the first heat by .12, and was rewarded with a downtime that was to that point the quickest of the race.
Nolte went next, and while her start was a tick better, it was slower than Walker’s by .04. That meant Nolte found herself behind off the top of the track, and the German never could make that time up as she fell behind the Aussie.
The final slider down was Buckwitz, the track record holder. Buckwitz dropped the fast start of the race in the second heat, and that plus a clean drive gave her the fast downtime of the race and an otherwise easy victory in Igls.
It was the second gold medal in women’s monobob for Buckwitz at the World Cup level, with both golds coming in Igls.
Walker’s silver was also her second in Igls, both having come behind Buckwitz. Nolte’s bronze was her fifth medal in World Cup monobob action. She’d previously won two golds and two silvers.
Despite walking away from Friday’s monobob race with no medals, it was still a good performance overall for the United States. Kaysha Love, the season opening gold medalist in her first ever World Cup race, once again had two strong starts on her way to a fourth place finish. Elana Meyers Taylor took advantage of a quicker track, as her second run was over a full second quicker, enough to move the American from seventh in the first heat to fifth.
Like Meyers Taylor, Romania’s Andreea Grecu had a huge second run that was over a full second quicker than her first. That was enough to catapult her from eighth in the first heat to sixth.
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah had two good runs in Igls, but just couldn’t quite find the pace of the contenders. She finished eighth, but walked away still holding the track’s start record.
Bianca Ribi, Appiah’s teammate, rounded out the top ten for Canada.
Austria’s Kati Beierl made her first World Cup start since suffering a small stroke in August prior to the 2022/2023 season. She finished 11th in her return., while Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll made her World Cup debut with a 15th place finish.
The women’s monobob tour will continue on Saturday with another race before the women move to two-woman bobsled for Sunday.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 4 | 5.90 | 5.83 | 55.83 | 55.34 | 1:51.17 |
| 2 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 9 | 6.08 | 5.96 | 55.99 | 55.43 | 1:51.42 |
| 3 | Laura Nolte | GER | 10 | 6.03 | 6.00 | 55.98 | 55.49 | 1:51.47 |
| 4 | Kaysha Love | USA | 11 | 5.88 | 5.89 | 56.18 | 55.52 | 1:51.70 |
| 5 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 13 | 6.20 | 6.01 | 56.59 | 55.48 | 1:52.07 |
| 6 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 12 | 6.07 | 5.92 | 56.62 | 55.60 | 1:52.22 |
| 7 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 8 | 6.08 | 6.04 | 56.40 | 55.89 | 1:52.29 |
| 8 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 5 | 6.01 | 6.00 | 56.50 | 56.00 | 1:52.50 |
| 9 | Margot Boch | FRA | 6 | 6.26 | 6.12 | 56.72 | 55.93 | 1:52.65 |
| 10 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 7 | 6.21 | 6.10 | 56.67 | 56.04 | 1:52.71 |
| 11 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 3 | 6.17 | 6.05 | 56.70 | 56.16 | 1:52.86 |
| 12 | Linda Weiszewski | POL | 1 | 6.19 | 6.03 | 56.85 | 56.03 | 1:52.88 |
| 13 | Qing Ying | CHN | 14 | 6.37 | 6.10 | 57.13 | 55.87 | 1:53.00 |
| 14 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 16 | 6.27 | 6.10 | 57.42 | 56.30 | 1:53.72 |
| 15 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 18 | 6.25 | 6.17 | 57.20 | 56.55 | 1:53.75 |
| 16 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 17 | 6.62 | 6.30 | 58.04 | 56.17 | 1:54.21 |
| 17 | Giada Andreutti | ITA | 2 | 6.68 | 6.54 | 57.77 | 57.07 | 1:54.84 |
| 18 | Julia Slupecka | POL | 19 | 6.64 | 6.57 | 58.18 | 57.48 | 1:55.66 |
| DNS | Kim Kalicki | GER | 15 | 6.43 | 57.42 | DNS | DNS |
