Kalicki Breaks Track Record in Sigulda Victory

From Sigulda, LAT

(February 2, 2024) – Kim Kalicki has been sliding injured for the better part of the 2023/2024 IBSF World Cup season, but you wouldn’t know it looking at her results. With the help of two big pushes with Leonie Fiebig, Kalicki led a German sweep of the podium in Sigulda for her second straight victory.

Kalicki trailed Olympic champion Laura Nolte after the first heat, as Nolte and brakewoman Claudia Schüßler had a quick and clean run to lead by .12. Lisa Buckwitz and Vanessa Mark sat third, .19 behind Nolte.

In the second heat Buckwitz threw the first dart, breaking the track record previously held by the United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor to take the lead from Swiss pilot Melanie Hasler. Kalicki went next, and she and Fiebig set the quick start of the competition. Despite a skid out of Curve 14, Kalicki lowered the track record another .05 to 50.66 as she took the lead by .12.

Nolte and Schüßler’s second start time was a hundredth quicker than their first. Like Kalicki, Nolte wasn’t exactly clean all the way down the Latvian track, and most of the way down it appeared as though Nolte would take the victory. One last late skid scrubbed off just a little more time, and Nolte’s second downtime put her .04 behind Kalicki to give her teammate the win in a German podium sweep.

Kalicki’s victory was her second straight and seventh of her career. She and Fiebig have been on 19 of the last 20 two-woman bobsled podiums.

Nolte’s silver was her 12th straight two-woman medal as Schüßler made her World Cup debut on her brakes. For Buckwitz, the bronze was her third in five two-woman races this season.

Hasler took fourth with Muswama Kambundji on brakes for the first time in six years. Aussies Bree Walker and Kiara Reddingius finished fifth, with Austria’s Kati Beierl and Nicola Pichler rounding out the top six, a best finish for Beierl in her return to World Cup competition this season.

Canada’s Cynthia Appiah and the United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor had two nearly identical races as far as downtimes go. Appiah and Leah Walkeden finished their first run a hundredth ahead of Meyers Taylor and Sydney Milani. In the second heat Meyers Taylor bettered Appiah’s second downtime by a hundredth as the two pilots ended the race tied for seventh.

Adele Nicoll and Willa Gibb continued a strong World Cup debut season with a ninth place finish in Nicoll’s first look at Sigulda from the front seat.

Bianca Ribi and Niamh Haughey finsihed 13th for Canada, while the United States’ Kasyah Love and Jasmine Jones crashed in their first run and did not start in the second heat.

The race doubled as the European Championships. The podium remained unchanged, with Hasler, Beierl, and Nicoll rounding out the top six there.

With three races to go in the two-woman bobsled calendar, Nolte leads Kalicki and Buckwitz. Hasler is fourth, with Walker and Meyers Taylor rounding out the top six. With her DNS in the second heat, Love drops to seventh overall.

Results: