From Igls, AUT
(January 13, 2024) – Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal won their straight gold medal of the 2023/2024 FIL World Cup season with a surprise victory in Igls.
A season ago, the Austrian team dominated the stop in Igls, and after one heat it appeared to be the case again. Selina Egle and Lara Kipp carried a .035 over Italy’s Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer going into their second run, but the Italian team had a few small mistakes in their second run and had fallen behind the Germans, leaving the door wide open for the Austrians to take gold.
It seemed as though that was what was going to happen. Early on Egle and Kipp were well ahead, and through the Kreisel curve it seemed as though they were on their way to certain victory. But out of Curve 9 the team had a huge skid and wall hit. That mistake dropped them well off the podium and into ninth and handed gold to Degenhardt and Rosenthal.
Vötter and Rosenthal finished with a silver medal, while the American team of Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby had an outstanding second run to slide into the medals with a bronze.
Latvia’s teams of Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova, and Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while for the fifth straight time to start the season Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler finished sixth.
After four races plus the Sprint World Cup event in Lake Placid, Degenhardt and Rosenthal lead defending champions Vötter and Oberhofer by 40 points, while Egle and Kipp are 46 points out in third. Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer are fourth, while Forgan and Kirkby are fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 16 | 2.167 | 2.174 | 40.114 | 40.064 | 1:20.178 |
| 2 | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 14 | 2.118 | 2.133 | 40.070 | 40.122 | 1:20.192 |
| 3 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 13 | 2.118 | 2.130 | 40.268 | 40.116 | 1:20.384 |
| 4 | Robezniece / Bogdanova | LAT | 5 | 2.159 | 2.139 | 40.262 | 40.176 | 1:20.438 |
| 5 | Upite / Kaluma | LAT | 3 | 2.177 | 2.147 | 40.207 | 40.272 | 1:20.479 |
| 6 | Chan / Weiler | USA | 17 | 2.185 | 2.155 | 40.285 | 40.268 | 1:20.553 |
| 7 | Eitberger / Schirmer | GER | 12 | 2.153 | 2.157 | 40.494 | 40.184 | 1:20.678 |
| 8 | Zimmerman / Schwarz | AUT | 3 | 2.139 | 2.179 | 40.310 | 40.382 | 1:20.692 |
| 9 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 15 | 2.165 | 2.162 | 40.035 | 40.660 | 1:20.695 |
| 10 | Storch / Patz | GER | 2 | 2.155 | 2.158 | 40.449 | 40.474 | 1:20.923 |
| 11 | Ziedina / Svilna | LAT | 7 | 2.135 | 2.139 | 40.514 | 40.534 | 1:21.048 |
| 12 | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 8 | 2.146 | 2.158 | 40.492 | 40.649 | 1:21.141 |
| 13 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 10 | 2.154 | 2.160 | 40.678 | 40.591 | 1:21.269 |
| 14 | Gulijienaiti / Zhao | CHN | 1 | 2.200 | 2.186 | 40.754 | 40.717 | 1:21.471 |
| 15 | Cezikova / Jansova | CZE | 11 | 2.176 | 2.177 | 40.799 | 40.815 | 1:21.614 |
| 16 | Domowicz / Piwkowska | POL | 6 | 2.169 | 2.181 | 40.906 | 40.843 | 1:21.749 |
| 17 | Khytrenko / Koval | UKR | 9 | 2.152 | 2.159 | 40.930 | 40.980 | 1:21.910 |
