From Oberhof, GER
(December 14, 2024) – Selina Egle and Lara Kipp won their second straight gold medal of the 2024/2025 season as they cruised to victory in Oberhof.
The Austrian duo were tenth off the top in the first heat and they took the lead with a track record 42.382 run, a tenth of a second ahead of Germany’s Jessica Degenhardt and Cheynne Rosenthal, with Dajana Eitberger and Lena Matschina a ways back in third place.
In the second heat, Race 1 winners Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby slid to the lead from fifth place, a lead they held past Italians Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer, who had entered the heat in fourth place.
Eitberger and Matschina took to the ice for their second run, and looked to have a medal all but secured, but a giant skid and near-crash late in their run dropped them well down the leaderboard and gave another medal to Forgan and Kirkby.
Degenhardt and Rosenthal were smooth and clean, but a bit slower than their first run as they took the lead from the Americans on their second effort.
That left Egle and Kipp to go. The duo were unable to match their first run time, but their second run was still quicker than any time anyone else had put down in the race as they won handily by .261 over Degenhardt and Rosenthal, with Forgan and Kirkby nearly another half of a second back in third.
Egle and Kipp’s victory was their second straight and eighth of their career, while Degenhardt and Rosenthal’s silver was their third straight to start the season.”
Vötter and Oberhofer set a start record on their way to a fourth place finish, with Latvia’s Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova in fifth. Elisa-Marie Storch and Pauline Patz rounded out the top six for Germany.
Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon finished ninth in their first World Cup start as a team.
Three races into the 2024/2025 FIL World Cup season, Degenhardt and Rosenthal have a five point lead over Egle and Kipp. Forgan and Kirkby sit third, only 30 points out of the lead. Vötter and Oberhoer are fourth,and Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 10 | 7.716 | 7.729 | 42.382 | 42.462 | 1:24.884 |
| 2 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 6 | 7.633 | 7.649 | 42.486 | 42.619 | 1:25.105 |
| 3 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 11 | 7.641 | 7.642 | 42.794 | 42.782 | 1:25.576 |
| 4 | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 8 | 7.627 | 7.645 | 42.790 | 42.815 | 1:25.605 |
| 5 | Robezniece / Bogdanova | LAT | 5 | 7.711 | 7.735 | 42.944 | 42.944 | 1:25.888 |
| 6 | Storch / Patz | GER | 12 | 7.749 | 7.749 | 43.084 | 42.925 | 1:26.009 |
| 7 | Eitberger / Matschina | GER | 2 | 7.687 | 7.701 | 42.675 | 43.534 | 1:26.209 |
| 8 | Upite / Kaluma | LAT | 9 | 7.731 | 7.746 | 43.138 | 43.134 | 1:26.272 |
| 9 | Chan / Gordon | USA | 13 | 7.756 | 7.793 | 43.383 | 43.258 | 1:26.641 |
| 10 | Domowicz / Piwkowska | POL | 4 | 7.835 | 7.850 | 43.357 | 43.424 | 1:26.781 |
| 11 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 7 | 7.816 | 7.876 | 43.480 | 43.576 | 1:27.056 |
| 12 | Falkensteiner / Huber | ITA | 1 | 7.868 | 7.855 | 43.469 | 43.948 | 1:27.417 |
| 13 | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 3 | 7.872 | 7.915 | 43.889 | 43.854 | 1:27.743 |