From Sigulda, LAT
(March 2, 2024) – Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal slid to gold in the final race of the 2023/2024 FIL World Cup season, but it was Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer who took the World Cup title.
Degenhardt and Rosenthal slid to the lead in the first heat with a track record slide, well ahead of Germany’s Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer, who were .177 back.
In the second heat, Eitberger and Schirmer nearly matched their first run time, which was enough to keep ahead of Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Kipp and guarantee no worse than a silver medal in the race.
Degenhardt and Rosenthal, the final team off, needed a victory to leapfrog Eitberger and Schirmer in the overall standings. The duo had the quickest start of the heat off the top, and maintained the quickest time at every split throughout their run on their way to a .254 second victory over teammates Eitberger and Schirmer.
The win for Degenhardt and Rosenthal was their sixth of the season, a tour-best. Eitberger and Schirmer took silver for their fifth straight medal, while Egle and Kipp finished third for their third medal in four races.
After a crash the week before, Jessica Degenhardt was elated with a victory.
“We’ve had a tough time,” she told FIL’s Kate Hansen. “We crashed last week in the sprint and we were both hurt. But now we won and this is all crazy!”
Just off the podium were Vötter and Oberhofer. Due to a crash by Degenhardt and Rosenthal in the Sprint World Cup finale a week prior, the Italians only needed to finish to win the overall title. Their first run was a bit bumpy, but a quick second run was enough to get them down clean and into fourth place in the race.
Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby, the lone American team in the race, set the start record in the first heat on their way to a fifth place finish.
Vötter and Oberhofer won the season title by 60 points over Degenhardt and Rosenthal. Eitberger and Schirmer finished the year third in points, nine points behind Degenhardt and Rosenthal.
Egle and Kipp finished fourth overall, with Forgan and Kirkby fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 8 | 1.674 | 1.623 | 42.271 | 42.377 | 1:24.648 |
| 2 | Eitberger / Schirmer | GER | 7 | 1.667 | 1.631 | 42.448 | 42.454 | 1:24.902 |
| 3 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 10 | 1.667 | 1.657 | 42.486 | 42.445 | 1:24.931 |
| 4 | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 9 | 1.661 | 1.650 | 42.554 | 42.475 | 1:25.029 |
| 5 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 6 | 1.617 | 1.631 | 42.458 | 42.662 | 1:25.120 |
| 6 | Upite / Kaluma | LAT | 3 | 1.628 | 1.639 | 42.547 | 42.636 | 1:25.183 |
| 7 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 2 | 1.675 | 1.685 | 42.817 | 43.184 | 1:26.001 |
| 8 | Gulijienaiti / Zhao | CHN | 1 | 1.658 | 1.702 | 44.462 | 43.384 | 1:27.846 |
| DNF | Ziedina / Zvilna | LAT | 4 | 1.641 | 1.641 | 42.600 | DNF | |
| DNS | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 5 | DNS |
