From Altenberg, GER
(December 8, 2024) – For the second time in as many days, Laura Nolte, Lisa Buckwitz, and Kim Kalicki went one-two-three in Altenberg, this time in the two-woman bobsled competition.
With Deborah Levi giving a big push off the top, Laura Nolte had the quick start at the top, and finished with the track record at the bottom of her first run. Buckwitz and brakewoman Neele Schuten matched Nolte’s start but found themselves .19 back after the first run, with Kalicki and Lauryn Siebert back in third.
In the second heat, Kalicki cleaned up some mistakes from her first drive to take the lead from Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler to take the lead. Buckwitz was up next, and her second drive wasn’t nearly as clean as her first. Buckwitz’s margin to Kalicki got closer and closer, but the 2018 Olympic champ held on by .04 to take the lead with Nolte to go.
On their second effort, Nolte and Levi matched their first run push but Nolte had a few early wall taps that briefly put gold in question. Nolte, the reigning World Cup champ, cleaned things up from the Omega curve onward, and slid to a .65 second victory over Buckwitz with the two quickest runs of the competition.
Nolte’s gold medal was the 16th in her two-woman World Cup career and 30th medal in total in the discipline.
Behind the three Germans, Melanie Hasler slid to a fourth place finish with the help of returning brakewoman Nadja Pasternack. The duo had the fourth quickest start in both heats.
The United States’ Kaillie Humphries and Jasmine Jones slid to fifth, while Elana Meyer Taylor and Emily Renna rounded out the top six.
Melissa Lotholz and Leah Walkeden had a strong start and Lotholz a beauty of a drive in the second to move up from tenth to seventh. Teammates Cynthia Appiah and Skylar Sieben rounded out the top ten in tenth place.
The United States put three sleds in the top ten, with Kaysha Love and Bailey Golden ninth in Golden’s first World Cup start, while Sylvia Hoffman and Jestena Mattson finished 15th, up from 16th in the first heat.
Australia’s Sarah Blizzard made her two-woman bobsled debut as a pilot with veteran pilot-turned-rugby star-turned brakewoman Ashleigh Werner on her brakes. They finished 17th in their first race together.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 4 | 5.58 | 5.58 | 55.99 | 56.15 | 1:52.14 |
| 2 | Buckwitz / Schuten | GER | 8 | 5.58 | 5.56 | 56.18 | 56.61 | 1:52.79 |
| 3 | Kalicki / Siebert | GER | 7 | 5.67 | 5.72 | 56.40 | 56.43 | 1:52.83 |
| 4 | Hasler / Pasternack | SUI | 6 | 5.69 | 5.70 | 56.64 | 56.60 | 1:53.24 |
| 5 | Humphries / J. Jones | USA | 17 | 5.83 | 5.81 | 56.68 | 56.60 | 1:53.28 |
| 6 | Meyers Taylor / Renna | USA | 5 | 5.74 | 5.71 | 56.49 | 56.82 | 1:53.30 |
| 7 | Lotholz / Walkeden | CAN | 16 | 5.78 | 5.74 | 57.17 | 56.64 | 1:53.81 |
| 8 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 12 | 5.78 | 5.76 | 56.72 | 57.16 | 1:53.88 |
| 9 | Love / Golden | USA | 10 | 5.76 | 5.74 | 57.02 | 57.02 | 1:54.04 |
| 10 | Appiah / Siebel | CAN | 9 | 5.86 | 5.90 | 57.12 | 57.04 | 1:54.16 |
| 11 | Boch / Senechal | FRA | 14 | 5.82 | 5.86 | 57.27 | 56.99 | 1:54.26 |
| 12 | Beierl / Schenk | AUT | 13 | 5.91 | 5.88 | 57.22 | 57.11 | 1:54.33 |
| 13 | Nicoll / Fabunmi-Alade | GBR | 11 | 5.95 | 5.89 | 57.20 | 57.32 | 1:54.52 |
| 14 | van Petegem / van Driessche | BEL | 1 | 6.09 | 6.02 | 57.56 | 57.29 | 1:54.85 |
| 15 | Hoffman / Mattson | USA | 19 | 5.81 | 5.80 | 57.51 | 57.48 | 1:54.99 |
| 16 | Popescu / Sarbu | ROU | 3 | 6.08 | 6.05 | 57.56 | 57.73 | 1:55.29 |
| 17 | Blizzard / Werner | AUS | 20 | 6.06 | 6.05 | 58.10 | 58.30 | 1:56.40 |
| 18 | Cernanska / Mokrasova | SVK | 15 | 5.98 | 6.01 | 57.39 | 65.41 | 2:02.80 |
| 19 | Weiszewski / Adamek | POL | 2 | 5.69 | 5.68 | 57.19 | 67.77 | 2:04.96 |
| DNS | Annen / Leuenberger | SUI | 18 | DNS |