From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 24, 2025) – Elana Meyers Taylor is one of the greats of bobsledding. She’s a five-time Olympic medalist, a two-time world champion and a two-time World Cup champion. In the relatively brief existence of the women’s monobob event, though, she’d never won a gold medal. She did win silver in the Olympics, and came into the race in St. Moritz with three World Cup medals to her name, but the top of the monobob podium has eluded her.
That is until Friday, when the American finally scored a gold medal in the single-seater in St. Moritz.
Meyers Taylor led monobob specialist Bree Walker by .08 after the first heat, with relative newcomer to the circuit Debora Annen in third place on her home track. Back in sixth was four-time monobob medalist Kaysha Love, Meyers Taylor’s teammate who had the fourth quickest start and a relatievly decent slide to put her .27 behind the lead.
Love found an extra .07 off the top with a big start that she coupled with an equally big drive to take the lead from Germany’s Kim Kalicki. She held that lead as Poland’s Linda Weiszewski, Germany’s Lisa Buckwitz and then Annen all failed to match her outstanding second run.
Love’s climb to the lead was cut short by Walker, who continued a strong 2024/2025 campaign with a second run that to that point was the quickest on the Swiss track this season.
It was then Meyers Taylor’s turn to take a crack at the second heat. Like Walker and Love she was quicker in her second start. Her second drive was about as clean as her first, and the American finished her second effort .88 quicker than her first on her way to a .24 second victory over Walker, with Love third.
The gold for Meyers Taylor was her 20th in the World Cup, with all but one coming as a pilot.
Walker’s silver was the tenth medal for the Aussie, while Love’s bronze was her fifth in monobob action.
Off the podium for the first time this season was Buckwitz, who had the quick start in both heats but couldn’t match her form from the previous four races.
Annen fell out of the medals but finished fifth for her third top six of the season, while Kalicki finished sixth.
Kaillie Armbruster Humphries was seventh for the United States, up from eighth in the first heat. Teammate Sylvia Hoffman was 20th after the first heat with an early start draw, but a quick and clean second slide moved her up to 16th in the second heat.
Cynthia Appiah led the way for the Canadians in tenth place. She leapfrogged teammate Bianca Ribi in the second heat, which moved Ribi to 11th. Melissa Lotholz finished out the Canadian effort in 17th.
Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll had a very late exit out of Horse Shoe which killed her speed and she finished 21st, two spots ahead of Nigeria’s Simidele Adeagbo, who finished 23rd in her World Cup debut.
Sarah Blizzard was 24th with an early start draw.
With three races remaining on the IBSF World Cup monobob calendar, Lisa Buckwitz continues to lead the World Cup standings, ahead of Bree Walker and Laura Nolte, who are second and third. Kaysha Love is fourth, just two points ahead of Kim Kalicki in fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 12 | 5.82 | 5.77 | 71.20 | 70.32 | 2:21.52 |
| 2 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 9 | 5.81 | 5.78 | 71.28 | 70.48 | 2:21.76 |
| 3 | Kaysha Love | USA | 10 | 5.80 | 5.73 | 71.47 | 70.60 | 2:22.07 |
| 4 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 5 | 5.75 | 5.71 | 71.41 | 70.68 | 2:22.09 |
| 5 | Debora Annen | SUI | 15 | 5.89 | 5.85 | 71.30 | 70.80 | 2:22.10 |
| 6 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 11 | 5.89 | 5.86 | 71.59 | 70.66 | 2:22.25 |
| 7 | Kaillie Armbruster Humphries | USA | 6 | 5.95 | 5.92 | 71.62 | 70.82 | 2:22.44 |
| 8 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 13 | 5.84 | 5.84 | 71.75 | 70.91 | 2:22.66 |
| 9 | Laura Nolte | GER | 8 | 5.80 | 5.79 | 71.75 | 70.96 | 2:22.71 |
| 10 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 4 | 5.80 | 5.77 | 71.70 | 71.02 | 2:22.72 |
| 11 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 23 | 5.92 | 5.88 | 71.69 | 71.20 | 2:22.89 |
| 12 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 14 | 5.91 | 5.87 | 71.86 | 71.06 | 2:22.92 |
| 13 | Linda Weiszewski | POL | 19 | 5.87 | 5.85 | 71.46 | 71.54 | 2:23.00 |
| 14 | Kelly van Petegem | BEL | 18 | 5.98 | 5.98 | 71.76 | 71.46 | 2:23.22 |
| 14 | Margot Boch | FRA | 17 | 6.03 | 6.02 | 71.71 | 71.51 | 2:23.22 |
| 16 | Sylvia Hoffman | USA | 3 | 5.79 | 5.72 | 72.02 | 71.40 | 2:23.42 |
| 17 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 16 | 5.77 | 5.82 | 71.83 | 71.75 | 2:23.58 |
| 18 | Qing Ying | CHN | 20 | 5.94 | 5.95 | 71.93 | 71.75 | 2:23.68 |
| 19 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 21 | 6.17 | 6.14 | 72.00 | 71.77 | 2:23.77 |
| 20 | Lea Haslwanter | AUT | 24 | 5.98 | 5.99 | 72.00 | 71.86 | 2:23.86 |
| 21 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 22 | 6.02 | 72.07 | |||
| 22 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 7 | 5.84 | 72.10 | |||
| 23 | Simidele Adeagbo | NGR | 25 | 6.09 | 72.86 | |||
| 24 | Sarah Blizzard | AUS | 1 | 6.19 | 73.10 | |||
| 25 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 2 | 6.18 | 73.82 |