From Lake Placid, USA
(March 22, 2024) – In the seasons prior to the IBSF World Cup holding women’s monobob races, the federation held “Monobob World Series” events in North America and Europe. In those, Australia’s Bree Walker won a handful of golds, and was on the podium more times than she was not.
But since the inclusion of monobob on the IBSF World Cup, Walker had been kept off the top of the podium, with three silvers and three bronzes and a bunch of near misses along the way.
But in the season finale in Lake Placid, Walker finally got the gold she’d been looking for, holding off a pair of North Americans to take top honors.
Walker set a track record in the first heat, ahead of USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Canada’s Cynthia Appiah just behind in second and third within .04 of the leader.
On the second run, Appiah picked up .08 on her start, and slid to the lead ahead of Germany’s Laura Nolte. Her lead only held for about two minutes, as Meyers Taylor took over with what was the quickest run of the heat to that point.
The last slider off the top was Walker. Like Appiah, she significantly picked up her start. And like she had in the first heat, Walker set the quick downtime of the heat and slid to a .24 second victory over Meyers Taylor, with Appiah in third.
Walker’s gold was her seventh medal in women’s monobob World Cup action.
Expectedly, Walker was thrilled with her performance.
“My first start I wasn’t too happy with, but I was able to come down with the fastest time,” the Aussie said. “So I knew if I was able to pick up my start and execute a good run I’d be in the medals. To walk away with the final win of the season was even better!”
Meyers Taylor finished second for her third straight monobob medal.
In third was Appiah, who took her first medal of a somewhat frustrating season.
Appiah was happy with how the day had turned out.
“I had a really good first run, but that last run after Curve 14 into the chicane I made a critical error that I don’t think I’ve ever made in my entire career. But I was able to hang onto my lead from the first heat and I’m just really happy to finish my season strong with another medal!”
For only the second time this season, Germany was kept off of a monobob podium. Nolte finished fourth, ahead of America’s Kaysha Love in fifth, while Lisa Buckwitz rounded out the top six. Love’s two starts were both start records.
Sylvia Hoffman put three American sleds in the top ten with a ninth place finish, one spot ahead of Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll in tenth. Bianca Ribi finished 12th for Canada, just ahead of Riley Tejcek of the United States in 13th.
The track was quick all race, with 14 of the 17 entrants setting a downtime under the old track record of 1:00.47.
With her sixth place finish, Lisa Buckwitz took the season title, 95 points ahead of Bree Walker. Walker’s victory was enough to put her two points ahead of Laura Nolte, who finished the year in third. Kaysha Love and Elana Meyers Taylor rounded out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 7 | 5.94 | 5.88 | 59.22 | 59.45 | 1:58.67 |
| 2 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 9 | 5.83 | 5.82 | 59.25 | 59.66 | 1:58.91 |
| 3 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 6 | 5.90 | 5.82 | 59.25 | 59.87 | 1:59.12 |
| 4 | Laura Nolte | GER | 5 | 5.96 | 5.93 | 59.36 | 59.80 | 1:59.16 |
| 5 | Kaysha Love | USA | 13 | 5.77 | 5.76 | 59.63 | 59.69 | 1:59.32 |
| 6 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 10 | 5.85 | 5.80 | 59.73 | 59.81 | 1:59.54 |
| 7 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 11 | 5.99 | 5.95 | 59.85 | 59.89 | 1:59.74 |
| 8 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 12 | 5.86 | 5.87 | 59.82 | 60.12 | 1:59.94 |
| 9 | Sylvia Hoffman | USA | 3 | 5.80 | 5.78 | 60.09 | 60.07 | 2:00.16 |
| 10 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 4 | 6.08 | 6.11 | 60.06 | 60.32 | 2:00.38 |
| 11 | Maureen Zimmer | GER | 8 | 5.85 | 5.90 | 59.96 | 60.57 | 2:00.53 |
| 12 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 1 | 6.21 | 6.11 | 60.09 | 60.49 | 2:00.58 |
| 13 | Riley Tejcek | USA | 17 | 6.30 | 6.35 | 60.21 | 60.39 | 2:00.60 |
| 14 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 14 | 6.08 | 6.00 | 60.66 | 60.44 | 2:01.10 |
| 15 | Debora Annen | SUI | 16 | 6.14 | 6.14 | 60.73 | 60.48 | 2:01.21 |
| 16 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 15 | 6.21 | 6.22 | 61.59 | 60.98 | 2:02.57 |
| 17 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 2 | 6.31 | 6.30 | 61.44 | 61.74 | 2:03.18 |