From Whistler, CAN
(February 6, 2025) – The 2024/2025 season has been strong for Austria, with gold medals at every event during the season. They kicked off the 53rd FIL World Championships with a gold in the inaugural Mixed Doubles championship.
The battle for the medals kicked off early with a pair of strong runs by the American team of Zack Digregorio, Sean Hollander, Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby. The team slid from the fourth starting spot and took the lead from Latvia. They then sat and watched as the next four teams couldn’t match their combined runs.
The Germany-2 team of Tobias Wendl, Tobias Arlt, Jessica Degenhardt and Cheynne Rosenthal narrowly outslid the Americans to take the lead on the strength of an opening volley by Wendl and Arlt.
After the top Latvian squad of men’s team Bots and Plume and women’s team of Robezniece and Bogdanova fell in behind the lone Italian team in the field, it was time for Austria’s lone team to take to the ice.
Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl had a strong slide to kick things off and hit the paddle in second, but only .13 behind the Germans. They handed off to Selina Egle and Lara Kipp, who came into the event having won all but one race on the season. They quickly made up the deficit and slid to the lead with only one team to go.
That team was Hannes Orlamünder, Paul Gubitz, Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina. Orlamünder and Gubitz slid out to the lead, but only by .06. Eitberger and Matschina put down a very good slide, but couldn’t quite match the pace of Egle and Kipp as they finished in second place, just .018 behind the Austrians.
“It feels amazing,” Steu told FIL’s Kate Hansen after the race. “It’s our first World Championship gold medal together, it’s an unbelievable feeling!”
“The run was really good,” Steu added. “We did our best run the whole week. It was a really great performance for all of us and it’s great to be world champions!”
Austria’s margin of victory from first to third was only .097 with Germany-1 just ahead of Germany-2. The United States’ USA-2 team was fourth, ahead of Italy’s Nagler, Malleier, Vötter and Oberhofer in fifth.
Canada’s team of Devin Wardrope, Cole Zajanski, Beattie Podulsky, and Kailey Allan were the first off the top and finished the race in eighth place. Americans Marcus Mueller, Ansel Haugsjaa, Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon had issues in their runs and finished 12th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Men | Women/Total |
| 1 | Steu & Kindl / Egle & Kipp | AUT | 11 | 39.931 | 1:22.894 |
| 2 | Orlamünder & Gubitz / Eitberger & Matschina | GER-1 | 12 | 39.845 | 1:22.912 |
| 3 | Wendl & Arlt / Degenhardt & Rosenthal | GER-2 | 9 | 39.918 | 1:22.991 |
| 4 | Digregorio & Holander / Forgan & Kirkby | USA-2 | 4 | 40.002 | 1:23.059 |
| 5 | Nagler & Malleier / Vötter & Oberhofer | ITA | 7 | 40.014 | 1:23.127 |
| 6 | Bots & Plume / Robezniece & Bogdanova | LAT-1 | 10 | 40.087 | 1:23.196 |
| 7 | Sevics-Mikelsevics & Krasts / Upite & Kaluma | LAT-2 | 3 | 40.240 | 1:23.544 |
| 8 | Wardrope & Zajanski / Podulsky & Allan | CAN | 1 | 40.320 | 1:23.923 |
| 9 | Chmielewski & Kowalewski / Domowicz & Piwkowska | POL | 6 | 40.273 | 1:24.422 |
| 10 | Hoi & Kachmar / Stetskiv & Mokh | UKR | 5 | 40.950 | 1:24.828 |
| 11 | Gitlan & Serban / Stramaturaru & Manolescu | ROU | 2 | 41.004 | 1:25.028 |
| 12 | Mueller & Haugsjaa / Chan & Gordon | USA-1 | 8 | 40.618 | 1:25.107 |