From Winterberg, GER
(January 3, 2025) – Winterberg tends to produce tight racing throughout the field more times than not, and the women’s skeleton race to open the 2025 calendar year was no exception.
After one heat, Janine Flock held a .01 second lead over Amelia Coltman, with Mystique Ro, Jacqueline Pfeifer, Anna Fernstädt, Hannah Neise, Kimberley Bos, Nicole Silveira, and Freya Tarbit all wedged in within a quarter of a second behind the two-time World Cup champion.
As expected, there were big moves made in the second heat. Kim Meylemans had a rough first run and slid to 19th place after the first heat. But her second effort eventually was the second quickest of the heat and enough to catapult her up to 12th.
From there, there was a bunch of moving and shaking as the second heat downtimes were just as close as the first. Valentina Margaglio slid from tenth in the second heat and picked off Tarbit and Silveira on her way to a season-best seventh place finish.
Fernstädt and Neise entered the second heat tied for fifth. Their second runs weren’t quite as identical, but were still very close, with Fernstädt out-sliding Neise by just .02 to take the lead with four to go.
From there the duo out-slid Pfeifer, and then Ro, to put Fernstädt in the medals. Coltman was next, and she also couldn’t quite find the pace in her second heat and fell behind Bos with only Flock to go to put Neise into the medals as well.
Flock was the final slider off the top. Her start time matched Fernstädt, and the Czech slider out-slid Flock early on. However, like in her first run, Flock found time at the bottom where seemingly nobody else could. She finished with the quickest run of the heat for her 11th gold medal of her career, and first victory since Sigulda in the 2021/2022 season.
The win also gave Flock podium number 40 in her illustrious World Cup career.
Fernstädt took silver, the second of her women’s skeleton career; her previous had come in Königssee during the 2020/2021 season. She also has a silver medal with cousin Timon Drahonovsky from the 2023/2024 season in the Mixed Team event.
For Neise, the bronze medal was her eighth medal in World Cup women’s skeleton competition.
Bos put down a top six second slide to move up to fourth, just .02 ahead of Coltman in fifth. Pfeifer finished sixth, only .13 out of the medals.
Mystique Ro came into the second heat in third place, but struggled to find speed at the bottom of the track and fell to 11th. It was generally tough sledding for the remainder of the American squad in Winterberg. Kelly Curtis finished 22nd, with teammates Sara Roderick and Katie Uhlaender just behind in 23rd and 24th.
Reigning world champion Hallie Clarke returned to the tour after a couple of races off scored an eighth place finish on the track she won her title on. Teammate Jane Channell slid to 15th, while Grace Dafoe matched a season best finish in 29th place to round out the Canadian effort.
Freya Tabrit entered the second heat in the top ten, but a hard hit before the Curve 0 killed her top end speed and dropped her to 13th. Teammate Tabitha Stoecker finished 16th.
With two races to go in the IBSF World Cup for women’s skeleton, Hannah Neise holds a .23 point lead over Janine Flock. Kimberley Bos is third, with Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman in fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Janine Flock | AUT | 3 | 5.57 | 5.51 | 58.22 | 58.44 | 1:56.66 |
| 2 | Anna Fernstädt | CZE | 18 | 5.55 | 5.51 | 58.39 | 58.54 | 1:56.93 |
| 3 | Hannah Neise | GER | 6 | 5.65 | 5.55 | 58.39 | 58.56 | 1:56.95 |
| 4 | Kimberley Bos | NED | 9 | 5.42 | 5.38 | 58.43 | 58.69 | 1:57.12 |
| 5 | Amelia Coltman | GBR | 4 | 5.44 | 5.45 | 58.23 | 58.91 | 1:57.14 |
| 6 | Jacqueline Pfeifer | GER | 8 | 5.59 | 5.58 | 58.33 | 58.85 | 1:57.18 |
| 7 | Valentina Margaglio | ITA | 15 | 5.31 | 5.27 | 58.49 | 58.71 | 1:57.20 |
| 8 | Hallie Clarke | CAN | 14 | 5.44 | 5.49 | 58.57 | 58.64 | 1:57.21 |
| 8 | Nicole Silveira | BRA | 10 | 5.59 | 5.52 | 58.44 | 58.77 | 1:57.21 |
| 10 | Viktoria Dönicke | GER | 12 | 5.22 | 5.20 | 58.60 | 58.69 | 1:57.29 |
| 11 | Mystique Ro | USA | 13 | 5.33 | 5.28 | 58.31 | 59.06 | 1:57.37 |
| 12 | Kim Meylemans | BEL | 5 | 5.52 | 5.35 | 58.86 | 58.52 | 1:57.38 |
| 13 | Freya Tarbit | GBR | 2 | 5.55 | 5.62 | 58.46 | 58.93 | 1:57.39 |
| 14 | Julia Erlacher | AUT | 19 | 5.33 | 5.35 | 58.57 | 58.86 | 1:57.43 |
| 15 | Jane Channell | CAN | 20 | 5.38 | 5.39 | 58.61 | 58.85 | 1:57.46 |
| 16 | Tabitha Stoecker | GBR | 7 | 5.29 | 5.32 | 58.67 | 58.94 | 1:57.61 |
| 17 | Susanne Kreher | GER | 1 | 5.67 | 5.43 | 58.97 | 58.72 | 1:57.69 |
| 18 | Yuxi Li | CHN | 30 | 5.38 | 5.43 | 58.76 | 59.05 | 1:57.81 |
| 19 | Alessia Crippa | ITA | 22 | 5.39 | 5.36 | 58.84 | 59.06 | 1:57.90 |
| 20 | Dan Zhao | CHN | 11 | 5.49 | 5.47 | 58.69 | 59.22 | 1:57.91 |
| 21 | Alessandra Fumagalli | ITA | 26 | 5.38 | 5.38 | 58.95 | 59.06 | 1:58.01 |
| 22 | Kelly Curtis | USA | 23 | 5.47 | 5.50 | 58.86 | 59.18 | 1:58.04 |
| 23 | Sara Roderick | USA | 17 | 5.38 | 5.36 | 58.94 | 59.22 | 1:58.16 |
| 24 | Katie Uhlaender | USA | 16 | 5.63 | 5.60 | 59.00 | 59.20 | 1:58.20 |
| 25 | Siji Song | CHN | 25 | 5.60 | 5.59 | 59.33 | 60.18 | 1:59.51 |
| 26 | Darta Zunte | EST | 32 | 5.55 | 59.43 | |||
| 27 | Nicole Burger | RSA | 31 | 5.39 | 59.75 | |||
| 28 | Aline Pelckmans | BEL | 37 | 5.76 | 59.81 | |||
| 29 | Grace Dafoe | CAN | 21 | 5.76 | 59.84 | |||
| 30 | Nanna Johansen | DEN | 29 | 5.83 | 60.05 | |||
| 31 | Katharina Eigenmann | LIE | 33 | 5.81 | 60.07 | |||
| 32 | Julia Simmchen | SUI | 28 | 5.78 | 60.52 | |||
| 33 | Clara Aznar | ESP | 35 | 5.79 | 60.64 | |||
| 34 | Sara Schmied | SUI | 34 | 5.52 | 60.74 | |||
| 35 | Laura Vargas | COL | 27 | 5.86 | 60.86 | |||
| 36 | Ana Torres Quevedo | ESP | 36 | 6.00 | 61.05 | |||
| DSQ | Shannon Galea | MLT | 38 | DSQ | ||||
| DNS | Yuxin Liang | CHN | 24 | DNS |