From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 12, 2025) – Kim Kalicki won her first gold medal of the 2024/2025 World Cup season on the same track she won her lone world championship title.
Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig had the second quick start of the first heat, and Kalicki the best drive of he heat on their way to a .2 second advantage over teammates Laura Nolte and Lisa Buckwitz, who were a hundredth apart in second and third.
Behind the three Germans, Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler and Debora Annen needed help to have a shot at the podium, but were in shouting distance of the German trio.
In the second heat though, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Jasmine Jones picked up their start by .06 and Armbruster Humphries had a quick slide to take the lead, which would stand for one sled. Elana Meyers Taylor and Sadie McMullen, in her first World Cup start, nearly matched their teammates’ start and had a quick slide of their own to take over in the leaders’ box.
Annen was next, and while she and Muswama Kambundji were quick, they didn’t have the pace to match either American. Hasler was next, and while she and Mara Morell out-started the Americans, Hasler was .02 slower in the heat than Annen and fell back to what would eventually be sixth.
The final three sleds were all German. Buckwitz nd Neele Schuten had the quick start of the race in the second heat, and was quicker than the Americans, but a few hits early in her run likely kept the duo from contending for gold.
Nolte and Debora Levi picked up their start by nearly a tenth of a second, and Nolte had the quick downtime of the season in St. Moritz to finish over three tenths ahead of Nolte and put maybe just a bit of pressure on Kalicki.
But Kalicki did not waver. As the winner of two of the last three races held in St. Moritz, including the 2023 World Championships, Kalicki drove she and Fiebig to within .15 of Nolte’s single run downtime, enough to win by .05 over Nolte, with Kalicki third.
The gold was the ninth in two-woman World Cup action. For Nolte, the silver gave her one of each medal in two-woman in St. Moritz.
Buckwitz’s bronze was her 15th medal in total in World Cup two-woman between the front and back seat.
It was also the third German sweep of the two-woman podium in four races this season.
Meyers Taylor finished fourth, her best finish of the two-woman season, while Armbruster Humphries scored her third top five in four races in fifth.
Hasler was sixth for the second straight two-woman race.
Sylvia Hoffman and Lolo Jones put three American sleds in the top ten, in a tie with Kati Beierl and Nicola Pichler. Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill were 12th, just behind the tie for tenth.
Bianca Ribi and Niamh Haughey were the top Canadian duo in 15th place, one spot ahead of Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll and Kya Placide. Cynthia Appiah and Morgan Ramsay were 17th, while Melissa Lotholz and Leah Walkeden were 20th to round out the Canadian effort.
At the halfway point of the 2024/2025 World Cup season, Laura Nolte leads Kim Kalicki by 35 points, while Lisa Buckwitz is third, only eight points behind Kalicki.
Melanie Hasler is fourth, and Kaillie Armbruster Humphries fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kalicki / Fiebig | GER | 10 | 5.51 | 5.46 | 68.98 | 67.87 | 2:16.85 |
| 2 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 4 | 5.53 | 5.44 | 69.18 | 67.72 | 2:16.90 |
| 3 | Buckwitz / Schuten | GER | 6 | 5.48 | 5.42 | 69.19 | 68.08 | 2:17.23 |
| 4 | Meyers Taylor / McMullen | USA | 8 | 5.62 | 5.59 | 69.48 | 68.36 | 2:17.84 |
| 5 | Armbruster Humphries / J. Jones | USA | 5 | 5.63 | 5.57 | 69.50 | 68.37 | 2:17.87 |
| 6 | Hasler / Morell | SUI | 9 | 5.58 | 5.55 | 69.38 | 68.58 | 2:17.96 |
| 7 | Annen / Kambundji | SUI | 22 | 5.59 | 5.57 | 69.47 | 68.56 | 2:18.03 |
| 8 | Walker / Reddingius | AUS | 21 | 5.59 | 5.55 | 69.66 | 68.69 | 2:18.35 |
| 9 | Weiszewski / Adamek | POL | 19 | 5.60 | 5.55 | 69.54 | 68.94 | 2:18.48 |
| 10 | Hoffman / L. Jones | USA | 20 | 5.58 | 5.53 | 69.63 | 68.91 | 2:18.54 |
| 10 | Beierl / Pichler | AUT | 11 | 5.65 | 5.57 | 69.76 | 68.78 | 2:18.54 |
| 12 | Love / Hill | USA | 7 | 5.68 | 5.57 | 69.93 | 68.95 | 2:18.88 |
| 13 | Cernanska / Mokrasova | SVK | 18 | 5.86 | 5.79 | 69.83 | 69.35 | 2:19.18 |
| 14 | Boch / Senechal | FRA | 13 | 5.69 | 5.65 | 69.96 | 69.23 | 2:19.19 |
| 15 | Ribi / Haughey | CAN | 23 | 5.69 | 5.68 | 69.90 | 69.46 | 2:19.36 |
| 16 | Nicoll / Placide | GBR | 1 | 5.78 | 5.74 | 70.34 | 69.54 | 2:19.88 |
| 17 | Appiah / Ramsay | CAN | 16 | 5.75 | 5.80 | 70.19 | 69.77 | 2:19.96 |
| 18 | Ying / Lv | CHN | 24 | 5.83 | 5.84 | 70.11 | 69.93 | 2:20.04 |
| 19 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 12 | 5.65 | 5.65 | 70.17 | 69.94 | 2:20.11 |
| 20 | Lotholz / Walkeden | CAN | 15 | 5.65 | 5.68 | 70.38 | 69.85 | 2:20.23 |
| 21 | van Petegem / Horemans | BEL | 14 | 5.89 | 70.57 | |||
| 22 | Popescu / Sarbu | ROU | 17 | 5.93 | 70.78 | |||
| 23 | Blizzard / Silvester | AUS | 2 | 6.02 | 71.69 | |||
| 24 | Djolo / Cranen | NED | 3 | 5.76 | 71.79 |