From Yanqing, CHN
(February 22, 2025) – As they had for the bulk of the 2024/2025 season, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp cruised to a season-ending victory in Yanqing to clinch their first World Cup title.
The duo simply needed a pair of clean runs to take the season crown, but opened up a .7 second advantage over Italy’s Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer after the first heat. Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma sat third, a tenth ahead of USA’s Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby in fourth.
Germany’s Jessican Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal sat fifth after the first heat after a big mistake late in their run dropped them
down to fifth place and what felt like out of contention for the season title. Their second run was an incredible improvement and easily enough to take the lead from Adikeyoumu Gulijienaiti and Jiaying Zhao in their first race back from injury.
From there, the Germans outslid USA’s Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby, and then Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma to put themselves on the podium.
Vötter and Oberhofer were looking for a strong finish to a disappointing season with their second run. But they hit the walls early in their run and the troubles compounded as they fell off the podium and behind the Americans to move the Germans up to no worse than second with the Austrian duo still to go.
Egle and Kipp had made a few very slight errors in their first run, but held a large lead after the first heat. In their second run they cleaned up those small issues and found even more speed as they became the first women’s doubles team to get down the 2022 Olympic track in under 60 seconds on their way to a yawning 1.825 second victory over the Germans to clinch their first title.
“This is an unbelievable feeling,” Egle told FIL media after the race. “Our first run we had some little mistakes out of 13, but in the second we had a clean run and it was a perfect end to the season!”
The win was the seventh in nine World Cup races for the Austrian duo. They failed to medal only once during the 2024/2025 season, in the season opener in Lillehammer.
Degenhardt and Rosenthal were second for the seventh time this season, with Upite and Kaluma third to take their second bronze medal of the season.
Forgan and Kirkby were fourth, with Vötter and Oberhofer fifth.
Egle and Kipp finish the season 90 points ahead of Degenhardt and Rosenthal, with Forgan and Kirkby third overall. Upite and Kaluma finish the season in fourth, ahead of Vötter and Oberhofer in fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 3 | 7.103 | 7.096 | 60.055 | 59.841 | 159.896 |
| 2 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 7 | 7.039 | 7.047 | 61.389 | 60.332 | 2:01.721 |
| 3 | Upite / Kaluma | LAT | 5 | 7.078 | 7.063 | 60.905 | 60.957 | 2:01.862 |
| 4 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 6 | 7.067 | 7.057 | 60.915 | 61.146 | 2:02.061 |
| 5 | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 4 | 7.076 | 7.090 | 60.764 | 62.977 | 2:03.741 |
| 6 | Gulijienaiti / Zhao | CHN | 8 | 7.124 | 7.226 | 61.689 | 62.203 | 2:03.892 |
| 7 | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 2 | 7.141 | 7.129 | 61.859 | 62.101 | 2:03.960 |
| 8 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 1 | 7.120 | 7.087 | 63.134 | 64.501 | 2:07.635 |