2013 FIBT World Championships – Team Competition

From St. Moritz, Switzerland

The USA took gold in almost everything it could last year in Lake Placid.  This year gold has been a little harder to come by, but the team competitions gives the Americans their first.

The team competition started off slow for USA-1, with John Daly not quite getting the start he needed and USA-1 winding up 7th behind strong German and Canadian efforts in men’s skeleton.  Great Britain also had a strong run by Dom Parsons for GBR-2, but the second British team had to withdraw due to technical problems with their women’s bobsled.

The women’s bobsled program was where things began to come to life for USA-1.  Elana Meyers and Lolo Jones finished third behind Sandra Kirasis and world champion Kaillie Humphries, moving the US up to fourth after two heats.

Women’s skeleton is where USA-1 made their move.  Noelle Pikus-Pace put down a time that would score her in the top 10 of most men’s competitions and placed over .6 ahead of Germany-1, who had an uncharacteristically slow run by Marion Thees, almost a second and a half behind Pikus-Pace.

The final run, two-man bobsled, was mostly a victory lap for Steven Holcomb.  Holcomb, who had narrowly missed a medal in two-man earlier in the day, had a steady run down the 1722 meter track to hold off world champion Francesco Friedrich and GER-1, who had to take silver.  CAN-1 overtook the second German effort in two-man to take bronze.

The second USA effort was led by a solid skeleton run by Katie Uhlaender, but inconsistent runs throughout the race led to an eighth place finish.  CAN-2 was as high up as fourth, but had to settle for a sixth place finish, while the Great Britain effort finishes seventh.

Results: