From Igls, AUT
(December 7, 2024) – As part of a large renovation project at the sliding track in Igls, the women’s and doubles start ramp is new from previous years and thus the FIL World Cup came into Austria with new track records to get.
And after two runs in the women’s singles event, Austria’s Madeleine Egle walked away with a gold medal, a start record and the two fastest women’s runs ever on the new configuration.
Egle started ninth in the first heat and set a downtime that went unmatched by over a tenth of a second. Germany’s Julia Taubitz was the closest, just over two tenths behind Egle, with Lisa Schulte another .06 behind Taubitz.
The second heat saw no real mixup in the top four. The United States’ Emily Sweeney found another .08 in her second run to take a large lead over Germany’s Anna Berreiter and guarantee herself fourth place.
From there Schulte slid to the lead, which she held for about a minute and a half until Taubitz took over from second place.
The final run of the day was Madeleine Egle. Her second start was the second quickest of the heat behind Sweeney, and while her second slide was over a tenth off of her first, the downtime was still faster than anyone else had put down all race.
The final margin of victory was .240 over Taubitz, with Schulte .369 off of the lead.
Despite the pressure of winning on her home track, Egle persevered.
“I feel amazing,” she told FIL TV. “There was a lot of pressure today, and I’m really happy with how I raced.”
Like Egle, Taubitz was elated with how she slid over the course of two runs.
“I had a really hard training week,” she said afterward. “I crashed two days ago and I didn’t have a good feeling. I’m really happy with a silver medal, today was a really good day!”
Behind Berreiter in fifth, Switzerland’s Natalie Maag took sixth as she edged out the United States’ Summer Britcher, who finished seventh.
Emma Erickson had a career-best World Cup finish with a 16th place finish, while Ashley Farquharson couldn’t get the rhythm of Igls down and finished 20th.
Canada put one women in the top 20, with Caitlin Nash just ahead of Farquharson in 19th. Trinity Ellis finished 21st, and Carolyn Maxwell 23rd.
Argentina’s Veroinca Ravenna and Ireland’s Elsa Desmond both qualified for their first World Cup race of the season and finished 28th and 30th, respectively.
After two races on the FIL World Cup tour, Julia Taubitz is your point leader, 39 points ahead of Madeleine Egle. Emily Sweeney is third, only one point behind Egle, with Lisa Schulte, Merle Fräbel, and Summer Britcher rounding out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Madeleine Egle | AUT | 9 | 9.290 | 9.358 | 46.161 | 46.323 | 1:32.484 |
| 2 | Julia Taubitz | GER | 16 | 9.380 | 9.413 | 46.370 | 46.354 | 1:32.724 |
| 3 | Lisa Schulte | AUT | 17 | 9.375 | 9.383 | 46.431 | 46.422 | 1:32.853 |
| 4 | Emily Sweeney | USA | 6 | 9.308 | 9.306 | 46.521 | 46.445 | 1:32.966 |
| 5 | Anna Berreiter | GER | 18 | 9.335 | 9.424 | 46.627 | 46.569 | 1:33.196 |
| 6 | Natalie Maag | SUI | 12 | 9.449 | 9.439 | 46.605 | 46.593 | 1:33.198 |
| 7 | Summer Britcher | USA | 10 | 9.417 | 9.404 | 46.605 | 46.682 | 1:33.287 |
| 8 | Merle Fräbel | GER | 15 | 9.399 | 9.394 | 46.637 | 46.653 | 1:33.290 |
| 9 | Elina Bota | LAT | 14 | 9.362 | 9.358 | 46.655 | 46.665 | 1:33.320 |
| 10 | Melina Fischer | GER | 2 | 9.386 | 9.364 | 46.790 | 46.534 | 1:33.324 |
| 11 | Sandra Robatscher | ITA | 4 | 9.393 | 9.420 | 46.685 | 46.667 | 1:33.352 |
| 12 | Verena Hofer | ITA | 11 | 9.372 | 9.368 | 46.649 | 46.719 | 1:33.368 |
| 13 | Kendija Aparjode | LAT | 7 | 9.488 | 9.472 | 46.788 | 46.617 | 1:33.405 |
| 14 | Barbara Allmaier | AUT | 5 | 9.456 | 9.418 | 46.792 | 46.675 | 1:33.467 |
| 15 | Dorothea Schwarz | AUT | 3 | 9.499 | 9.468 | 46.777 | 46.840 | 1:33.617 |
| 16 | Emma Erickson | USA | 21 | 9.439 | 9.468 | 46.869 | 46.996 | 1:33.865 |
| 17 | Zane Kaluma | LAT | 8 | 9.449 | 9.451 | 47.000 | 46.952 | 1:33.952 |
| 18 | Nina Zöggeler | ITA | 1 | 9.468 | 9.509 | 46.972 | 47.031 | 1:34.003 |
| 19 | Caitlin Nash | CAN | 20 | 9.460 | 9.435 | 47.048 | 46.962 | 1:34.010 |
| 20 | Ashley Farquharson | USA | 13 | 9.412 | 9.446 | 47.025 | 47.140 | 1:34.165 |
| 21 | Trinity Ellis | CAN | 23 | 9.475 | 47.109 | |||
| 22 | Tove Kohala | SWE | 19 | 9.522 | 47.151 | |||
| 23 | Carolyn Maxwell | CAN | 22 | 9.423 | 47.190 | |||
| 24 | Ioana-Corina Buzatoiu | ROU | 25 | 9.464 | 47.199 | |||
| 25 | Yulianna Tunytska | UKR | 24 | 9.410 | 47.215 | |||
| 26 | Klaudia Domaradzka | POL | 27 | 9.460 | 47.261 | |||
| 27 | Huilan Hu | CHN | 26 | 9.535 | 47.274 | |||
| 28 | Veronica Ravenna | ARG | 28 | 9.586 | 47.318 | |||
| 29 | Hyesun Jung | KOR | 29 | 9.489 | 47.333 | |||
| 30 | Elsa Desmond | IRL | 30 | 9.556 | 48.204 |