From Sigulda, LAT
(December 15, 2024) – The final IBSF World Cup two-woman bobsled race of the 2024 calendar year took place in Sigulda, nominally on the same track. But the two heats could not have been any different, with second run times a second and a half quicker than the first.
But despite the difference in speed between the two heats, Laura Nolte set the quick time in the first heat and backed it up with the second quickest run in the second heat to win her second straight gold medal.
Nolte and brakewoman Leonie Kluwig opened up a .23 second advantage over USA’s Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones in the first heat, with Kim Kalicki and Neele Schuten .41 seconds back in third.
In the second heat, after the bulk of the field has gone nearly a second and a half quicker than their first run, Kalicki drove her FES sled to a 53.26 downtime, well off the track record but also over two full seconds quicker than her first run.
Love tried to answer. She and Jones started .04 quicker off the top, and Love put down a solid drive of her own. But Love was “only” 1.3 seconds quicker than her first effort, which dropped her behind Kalicki but guaranteed the American her second two-woman medal as a pilot.
That left Nolte between Kalicki and a gold medal. She and Kluwig were also .04 quicker off the top compared to their first start. Like Love before her, Nolte wasn’t able to match the speed Kalicki found in her run, but Nolte had enough banked from the first run to hold off her teammate and win by .11.
The win for Nolte was her second straight on the season in two-woman bobsled and 17th of her career in the discipline.
For Kalicki, silver was her second medal on the year in two-woman and 30th medal overall in the two-seater.
Just off of the podium was the previous day’s monobob winner Lisa Buckwitz. She and Kira Lipperheide had the quick start in both heats. Buckwitz drove them up from sixth in the first heat but was unable to match Love’s effort to move into the medals.
Kati Beierl and Nicola Pichler finished fifth, which matches her best finish since winning the World Cup title in the 2020/2021 season.
Belgium’s Kelly Van Petegem entered the second heat in fourth place alongside brakewoman Jienity de Kler. The duo were well over a second quicker in their scond run but fell back to sixth, still a career best finish on the World Cup tour for the Belgian team.
Kaillie Armbruster Humphries paired up with Emily Renna and finished tenth to place two American sleds in the top ten. Teammates Elana Meyers Taylor and Azaria Hill finished one spot behind in 11th.
Both Canadian sleds finished just behind their American counterparts. Melissa Lotholz and Leah Walkeden finished 12th, .11 ahead of Cynthia Appiah and Skylar Sieben in 13th.
Coming into the race in Sigulda, Viktoria Cernanska’s career-best finish on the World Cup tour was ninth, twice. But both of those ninth place finishes were in smaller fields than Sunday morning in Sigulda, where she once again matched a career-best in ninth.
Two races into the eight race World Cup two-woman bobsled schedule, Laura Nolte is the point leader, perfect on the season. Kim Kalicki sits second, with Lisa Buckwitz putting all three women in the top three. Melanie Hasler and Kaysha Love round out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Nolte / Kluwig | GER | 10 | 5.31 | 5.27 | 55.03 | 53.56 | 1:48.59 |
| 2 | Kalicki / Schuten | GER | 9 | 5.32 | 5.31 | 55.44 | 53.26 | 1:48.70 |
| 3 | Love / Jones | USA | 13 | 5.36 | 5.32 | 55.26 | 53.95 | 1:49.22 |
| 4 | Buckwitz / Lipperheide | GER | 5 | 5.22 | 5.22 | 55.80 | 53.84 | 1:49.64 |
| 5 | Beierl / Pichler | AUT | 14 | 5.42 | 5.43 | 55.56 | 54.11 | 1:49.67 |
| 6 | Van Petegem / de Kler | BEL | 15 | 5.58 | 5.56 | 55.55 | 54.17 | 1:49.72 |
| 7 | Hasler / Morell | SUI | 7 | 5.37 | 5.37 | 56.02 | 54.43 | 1:50.45 |
| 8 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 11 | 5.43 | 5.41 | 55.97 | 54.53 | 1:50.50 |
| 9 | Cernanska / Mokrasova | SVK | 16 | 5.74 | 5.62 | 55.80 | 54.73 | 1:50.53 |
| 10 | Armbruster Humphries / Renna | USA | 4 | 5.51 | 5.49 | 56.23 | 54.38 | 1:50.61 |
| 11 | Meyers Taylor / Hill | USA | 12 | 5.52 | 5.40 | 56.20 | 54.55 | 1:50.75 |
| 12 | Lotholz / Walkeden | CAN | 6 | 5.40 | 5.38 | 56.44 | 54.98 | 1:51.42 |
| 13 | Appiah / Sieben | CAN | 8 | 5.49 | 5.50 | 56.43 | 55.10 | 1:51.53 |
| 14 | Boch / Desailly | FRA | 1 | 5.50 | 5.49 | 56.71 | 55.11 | 1:51.82 |
| 15 | Popescu / Musulete | ROU | 3 | 5.70 | 5.74 | 57.32 | 55.95 | 1:53.27 |
| DNS | Hoffman / Quinn | USA | 2 | DNS |