From Sigulda, LAT
(January 5, 2025) – The end result was a little familiar, with Germany beating out Austria to win. But that’s about where anything from Sunday’s FIL World Team Relay otherwise looked like anything seen in a relay before.
The race began with Poland seemingly on their way to a finish, but the women’s doubles team of Nikola Domowicz and Dominika Piwkowska crashed midway through their run and Poland scored a DNF.
Up next was Ukraine. The team of Yulianna Tunytska, Ihor Hoi and Nazarii Kachmar, Andriy Mandziy, and Olena Stetskiv and Oleksandra Mokh all completed their runs cleanly and figured to have a top six or possibly top five in the small seven team field.
And that’s where the wheels fell off.
Up next were the Americans. Emily Sweeney, who finished sixth in the women’s luge race the day before. Nearly always consistent, Sweeney came out of the finish Kreisel crooked reached up and tried to tap the paddle but only got a finger on it, leading to a USA disqualification, or so it seemed.
Latvia was next, and in almost a mirror to Sweeney’s effort, Elina Bota also came out of the finish curve crooked, reached up and got just a finger or two on the paddle and also took a disqualification.
The Italians just needed three clean runs to get into the medals, and three quarters of the way through their run it seemed like they were on their way to a medal. But Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhoer went over out of Curve 13 and could not get their sled righted.
Germany’s four runs were very uneventful. Merle Fräbel, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, Max Langenhan, and Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal all were clean and clear on their way to the lead.
Things got weird again when Lisa Schulte took to the start. The women’s luge athletes start with a 15 second warning, then a reaction start like the sleds that go after them in the relay. However Schulte did not get that warning, and the gates opened as she sat there waiting for her alert. After a delay to get things reset, she took her turn down the track. She, Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher, Nico Gleirscher, and Selina Egle and Lara Kipp were all aldo clean ad clear and slid into second place, only .04 behind the Germans.
The gate issue had apparently happened to both the Americans and Latvians before the Austrians had their problems. Both nations protested and were allowed a second attempt.
All eight sleds went back to the top, with the Americans to go before the Latvians. Emily Sweeney once again took off from the top, and this time she didn’t make it to the paddle. She was late out of Curve 15 and crashed, unable to get to the paddle.
The final sled between Ukraine and a medal was the Latvian team. This time, Bota had no issue with the paddle. Nor did either Bots and Plume or Aparjods, and it seemed like Latvia had a shot at gold. But Marta Robezniee and Kitija Bogdanova crashed late in their run and also did not finish.
So after everything, Germany took gold, .04 ahead of Austria, with Ukraine three seconds back in third for their first ever Team Relay bronze medal.
Poland, Latvia, Italy, and the United States did not finish.
Two races into the Team Relay season, Germany and Austria are tied. Ukraine sits third, ahead of Italy, the United States, and Romania.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Women | M-Doubles | Men | W-Doubles |
| 1 | Fräbel / Wenld & Arlt / Langenhan / Degenhardt & Rosenthal | GER | 6 | 44.996 | 1:29.995 | 2:14.594 | 3:00.723 |
| 2 | Schulte / Müller & Frauscher / N. Gleirscher / Egle & Kipp | AUT | 7 | 45.308 | 1:30.395 | 2:15.004 | 3:00.763 |
| 3 | Tunytska / Hoi & Kachmar / Dukach / Stetskiv & Mokh | UKR | 2 | 45.913 | 1:32.649 | 2:17.956 | 3:04.670 |
| DNF | Domaradzka / Chmielewski & Kowalewski / Sochowicz / Domowicz & Piwkowska | POL | 1 | 46.082 | 1:31.820 | 2:16.960 | DNF |
| DNF | Bota / Bots & Plume / Aparjods / Robezniece & Bogdanova | LAT | 4 | 45.218 | 1:30.127 | 2:14.642 | DNF |
| DNF | Hofer / Rieder & Kainzwaldner / Fischnaller / Vötter & Oberhofer | ITA | 5 | 45.600 | 1:31.087 | 2:15.794 | DNF |
| DNF | Sweeney / Digregorio & Hollander / Gustafson / Forgan & Kirkby | USA | 3 | DNF |