From Lake Placid, USA
(March 15, 2025) – Laura Nolte took a two-heat lead over teammates Kim Kalicki and Lisa Buckwitz after Friday and turned it into a German podium sweep with a commanding performance on Saturday to give her the first world championship two-woman gold of her career.
Nolte and brakewoman Deborah Levi were dominant in their performance, with top two start times in each of the four heats. From there, Nolte was nearly flawless as she set the quick time in each of the four heats on her way to a gold medal victory over Kim Kalicki by .52.
While Kalicki was close overnight, Nolte was not too worried going into the third heat.
“I’m very calm. I think “Tomorrow’s a new day, we’ll start from scratch.” And even though we had .2 in our hands, we remain calm and we’re confident!”
Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig had four starts in the top five, and Kalicki the second quickest run behind only Nolte for what was an otherwise relatively easy silver medal. The duo trailed by just .03 after the first heat, but Nolte slowly pulled away over the remaining three heats.
Kalicki’s silver was the fifth two-woman world championship medal for the German. She was the 2023 two-woman champion and has medaled in every world championship since 2020.
Third, and in a more precarious position was Lisa Buckwitz. She and brakewoman Kira Lipperheide were only out-started by Nolte once, in the fourth heat. And in that fourth heat early on it appeared as though Buckwitz may be able to make a run at Kalicki. However, it appeared as though Lipperheide may have pulled the brakes early, which killed time for Buckwitz as she fell well behind Kalicki and just .06 from falling out of the medals.
The first sled off the podium and leader of the three American sleds that were behind the Germans belonged to Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Emily Renna. The duo had the seventh quickest start in each heat, and Humphries got seemingly quicker as the race went on, culiminating with the third quickest run of the fourth heat.
Afterward, Armbruster Humphries credited brakewoman Renna for her starting skill on their way to fourth.
“I’m just nine months postpartum, so it’s been a slow return to play physically. The driving hasn’t gone away, which is great! Taking it step by step was our goal, and we really worked together and I’m really proud of Emily today!”
Renna added, “Kaillie is a legend, and to come out nine months postpartum and do it, and we did it together, it’s just amazing and incredible. It’s been so fun getting to race with her and I’m just so happy with how we did!”
Behind Armbruster Huphries Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones slid to a fifth place finish, Love’s best finish as a pilot in a world championships. Elana Meyers Taylor and Lolo Jones rounded out the top six in a strong American showing.
Melissa Lotholz slid to eighth place finish as the top Canadian alongside Leah Walkeden. Cynthia Appiah just missed out on a top ten with an 11th place finish but put down a strong top seven run in the fourth heat with Skylar Sieben.
Bianca Ribi and Niamh Haughey rounded out the Candian effort in 15th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 1 | 56.43 | 56.34 | 56.16 | 57.07 | 3:46.00 |
| 2 | Kalicki / Fiebig | GER | 2 | 56.46 | 56.54 | 56.33 | 57.19 | 3:46.52 |
| 3 | Buckwitz / Lipperheide | GER | 3 | 56.63 | 56.57 | 56.39 | 57.87 | 3:47.46 |
| 4 | Love / J. Jones | USA | 9 | 56.82 | 56.71 | 56.74 | 57.49 | 3:47.76 |
| 5 | Armbruster Humphries / Renna | USA | 7 | 56.88 | 56.77 | 56.53 | 57.34 | 3:47.52 |
| 6 | Meyers Taylor / L. Jones | USA | 6 | 56.76 | 56.91 | 56.65 | 57.74 | 3:58.06 |
| 7 | Hasler / Kambundji | SUI | 4 | 56.96 | 57.04 | 57.03 | 57.90 | 3:48.93 |
| 8 | Beierl / Williams | AUT | 5 | 56.88 | 57.21 | 56.95 | 58.24 | 3:49.28 |
| 9 | Lotholz / Walkeden | CAN | 8 | 57.11 | 57.14 | 57.27 | 57.64 | 3:49.16 |
| 10 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 10 | 57.26 | 57.14 | 57.09 | 58.26 | 3:49.75 |
| 11 | Appiah / Sieben | CAN | 12 | 57.31 | 57.47 | 57.20 | 57.83 | 3:49.81 |
| 12 | Annen / Morell | SUI | 14 | 57.30 | 57.53 | 57.36 | 58.59 | 3:50.78 |
| 13 | Ribi / Haughey | CAN | 17 | 57.49 | 57.37 | 57.74 | 58.45 | 3:51.05 |
| 14 | Boch / Senechal | FRA | 11 | 57.37 | 57.61 | 57.39 | 57.91 | 3:50.28 |
| 15 | Walker / Reddingius | AUS | 15 | 57.49 | 57.57 | 57.56 | 58.13 | 3:50.75 |
| 16 | Kim / Yeon | KOR | 18 | 57.62 | 57.70 | 57.62 | 58.44 | 3:51.38 |
| 17 | Nicoll / Nelson | GBR | 13 | 57.99 | 57.97 | 57.85 | 58.66 | 3:52.47 |
| 18 | Lin / Liang | TPE | 19 | 58.45 | 58.30 | 58.33 | 59.06 | 3:54.14 |
| 19 | Campeol / Wannakhot | THA | 20 | 59.95 | 59.83 | 59.98 | 60.52 | 4:00.28 |
| DSQ | Popescu / Sarbu | ROU | 16 | DSQ |