From Winterberg, GER
(January 5, 2025) – About 11 months after winning her first two-woman bobsled world championship, Lisa Buckwitz returned to Winterberg and once again took gold in the two-seater, but she had to come from behind to do so.
The Germans were seemingly all by themselves after the first heat. Laura Nolte and brakewoman Deborah Levi led Buckwitz and Kira Lipperheide by what felt like an insurmountable .31, with teammates Kim Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig back in third, nearly a half of a second behind Nolte.
But in the second heat, on much quicker track conditions, Buckwitz slid to the lead by .2 ahead of Kalicki and Fiebig with only Nolte to go. Nolte’s start was the quickest of the heat, but a small mistake through the zero curve left her just a tenth ahead of Buckwitz. By the time Nolte hit the Kreisel she was behind, but just by a few hundredths of a second.
Nolte’s bottom part of her second run was quick, but not quite quick enough. She closed her gap to Buckwitz to within a hundredth of a second but ran out of track and finished second, with Buckwitz winning.
The podium matched the 2024 World Championship podium, with Buckwitz gold, Nolte silver, and Kalicki bronze.
The gold for Buckwitz was her third in World Cup action as a pilot, and seventh gold between driving and pushing. Nolte’s silver was the 32nd medal of her career, while Kalicki’s bronze was her 31st medal.
The first sled off the podium belonged to the United States, with Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Emily Renna sliding to fourth from sixth place in the first heat. Bree Walker and Kiara Reddingius slid to fifth place, just a hundredth behind the Americans.
Melanie Hasler and Muswama Kambundji put down a big second effort to move up from 11th in the first heat to sixth place.
Elana Meyers Taylor and Lolo Jones slid to 12th place, up from 13th in the first heat. Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill finished 15th, with Sylvia Hoffman and Bailey Goldan 17th, up from 19th in the first heat to round out the American effort.
Bianca Ribi and Niamh Haughey slid to 11th in Ribi’s first World Cup start of the season to lead the Canadians. Melissa Lotholz and Leah Walkeden had a very snowy track to start their first heat with, their second run was on a much cleaner track and allowed them to move up from 15th to 14th in the second heat. Cynthia Appiah and Skylar Sieben finished 19th.
Adele Nicoll ran over her foot with her sled prior to the holiday break, and made her return to action while sitting in her sled at the start, with Ashleigh Nelson pushing her off. The Brits finished 21st despite that.
Three races into the 2024/2025 World Cup season, Laura Nolte leads Lisa Buckwitz, with Kim Kalicki third. Melanie Hasler and Kaillie Armbruster Humphries fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Buckwitz / Lipperheide | GER | 13 | 5.54 | 5.50 | 57.25 | 56.76 | 1:54.01 |
| 2 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 12 | 5.49 | 5.52 | 56.94 | 57.08 | 1:54.02 |
| 3 | Kalicki / Fiebig | GER | 5 | 5.58 | 5.56 | 57.42 | 56.79 | 1:54.21 |
| 4 | Armbruster Humphries / Renna | USA | 10 | 5.71 | 5.66 | 57.54 | 57.22 | 1:54.76 |
| 5 | Walker / Reddingius | AUS | 19 | 5.61 | 5.60 | 57.48 | 57.29 | 1:54.77 |
| 6 | Hasler / Kambundji | SUI | 8 | 5.61 | 5.60 | 57.71 | 57.11 | 1:54.82 |
| 7 | Boch / Senechal | FRA | 15 | 5.71 | 5.69 | 57.53 | 57.33 | 1:54.86 |
| 8 | Beierl / Pichler | AUT | 11 | 5.67 | 5.65 | 57.60 | 57.39 | 1:54.99 |
| 9 | Weiszewski / Adamek | POL | 18 | 5.62 | 5.65 | 57.57 | 57.53 | 1:55.10 |
| 10 | Annen / Leuenberger | SUI | 21 | 5.75 | 5.79 | 57.62 | 57.77 | 1:55.39 |
| 11 | Ribi / Haughey | CAN | 20 | 5.75 | 5.78 | 57.57 | 57.93 | 1:55.50 |
| 12 | Meyers Taylor / L. Jones | USA | 9 | 5.71 | 5.65 | 57.93 | 57.60 | 1:55.53 |
| 13 | van Petegem / de Kler | BEL | 14 | 5.77 | 5.77 | 57.82 | 57.75 | 1:55.57 |
| 14 | Lotholz / Walkeden | CAN | 4 | 5.71 | 5.69 | 58.26 | 57.53 | 1:55.79 |
| 15 | Love / Hill | USA | 7 | 5.72 | 5.69 | 58.12 | 57.83 | 1:55.95 |
| 16 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 6 | 5.74 | 5.73 | 58.32 | 58.04 | 1:56.36 |
| 17 | Hoffman / Golden | USA | 1 | 5.69 | 5.62 | 58.70 | 57.82 | 1:56.52 |
| 18 | Blizzard / Silvester | AUS | 17 | 5.95 | 5.94 | 58.34 | 58.24 | 1:56.58 |
| 19 | Appiah / Siebens | CAN | 2 | 5.82 | 5.78 | 58.70 | 58.01 | 1:56.71 |
| 20 | Popescu / Sarbu | ROU | 16 | 5.93 | 5.97 | 58.52 | 58.86 | 1:57.38 |
| 21 | Nicoll / Nelson | GBR | 3 | 6.24 | 59.00 | |||
| 22 | Djolo / Cranen | NED | 22 | 5.80 | 60.01 |