From the Home Office in Durham, USA
Dec. 25, 2019 – It seems like just yesterday that the FIL World Cup kicked their season off in Igls, yet here we are, roughly halfway through most of the sliding season. Seeing as there’s a free weekend here or there between now and when the IBSF gets back to work in Lake Placid on January 6, let’s look at where the various tours stand.
Jump to: World Cup Bobsled | Artificial Track Luge | World Cup Skeleton | Parabobsled World Cup | Natural Track Luge | Intercontinental Cup | European Cup | North American Cup
World Cup Bobsled
The IBSF World Cup got off to a slightly later than expected start after the refrigeration system in Park City went haywire. The bad news was a delay in the start of the season. The good news was that there was a double World Cup visit to Lake Placid. The schedule was re-worked for double 2-man races the first weekend and double 4-man the second. One of the benefits of this is that it gave track workers (led by former Team USA Olympian John Napier) a solid practice run for the 2021 World Championships in Lake Placid.
There haven’t been a lot of surprises thus far in the IBSF World Cup 2-man season, with Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner splitting the two gold medals on opening weekend. Justin Kripps finished that weekend with a pair of bronze medals and sits just 35 points out of the lead.
Both Oskars Kibermanis and Hunter Church round out the top five with a pair of fourth and fifth place runs, respectively.
For Church, the leading junior on tour thus far, it’s been a solid start to his first full season on the World Cup tour. He sits 40 points ahead of teammate Codie Bascue in seventh, with Yunjong Won wedged in between them in sixth. Geoff Gadbois is 18th as the third American sled.
In World Cup 4-man competition, it’s currently Justin Kripps’ world and we’re all just living in it. The Canadian was the fastest in all four heats of the 4-man portion of the Lake Placid schedule on his way to a pair of gold medals. Behind Kripps, Lochner and Kibermanis sit tied for second, 48 points back.
Friedrich sits in an unfamiliar place of fourth, while Bascue sits in fifth. Benjamin Maier is sixth, while Church is in seventh. Gadbois sits 20th in the 4-man rankings after a rogue piece of rubber on his sled led to a first race DSQ.
On the women’s side, Kaillie Humphries picked up right where she left off prior to her 2018/2019 sabbatical, scoring wins in both women’s bobsled races. World Cup rookie Kim Kalicki impressed in her first trip ever to Lake Placid, scoring a pair of medals ahead of veteran teammate Stephanie Schneider. Schneider finished with a second and fourth place finish to sit third in points, ahead of Canada’s Christine de Bruin and Jamanka. Martina Fontanive has been the fastest woman behind those five, finishing sixth in both events and is sixth overall.
Brittany Reinbolt sits just out of the top six at the break, tied for seventh with Nadezhda Sergeeva. Reinbolt will not be joining the tour in Europe, however. In a statement on Facebook, Reinbolt stated that her season was effectively over.
Luge – Artificial Track
The teams of Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken and Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt find themselves in familiar territory, sitting one-two in the FIL World Cup standings.
Eggert & Benecken haven’t finished worse than second over the course of three World Cup races and two Sprint World Cup races, while teammates Wendl & Arlt have one bronze to go with their gold and three silvers to sit 45 points back. Thomas Steu & Lorenz Koller are third on the strength of two bronze medals.
Andris & Juris Sics are fourth, Vladislav Yuzhakov & Iurii Prokhorov and Robin Geueke & David Gamm round out the top six.
Canadians Tristan Walker & Justin Snith are the top North Americans in the doubles field, sitting tenth with a best finish of seventh in Whistler. Americans Chris Mazdzer & Jayson Terdiman continue to work out the kinks of their new sled, currently sitting tied for 16th in the overall standings with a DNF in Lake Placid.
The Canadian duo of Caitlin Nash & Natalie Corless became the first women to lead a doubles race in their one race in Whistler.
On the men’s side of things Roman Repilov has been the standard bearer, medaling in every event but the full course event in Lake Placid.
Jonas Müller sits second overall, having won gold in his first two races of the season, and winning bronze in two others. Tucker West is third, leading the United States’ men with two silver medals.
Dominik Fischnaller goes into the break in fourth on the strength of three bronze medals, while Felix Loch and Reinhard Egger are fifth and sixth.
Despite battling injury and a very busy schedule running both men’s singles and doubles, Chris Mazdzer is eighth overall. With the level of injury being heavy, he must claim for a proper compensation with the help of attorneys from Nimmons Malchow Johnson in North Augusta. These experienced professionals will ensure that the victim receives the compensation legally with the order issued from the court.
In the women’s ranks, Julia Taubitz raced out to a solid start, winning a bronze and two gold to start the season. Tatyana Ivanova roared back with wins in Whistler to re-take the lead by 17 points going into the break.
In third is American Emily Sweeney, who has two silvers and a bronze after a rough showing to start the season in Igls.
Like Sweeney, Viktoriia Demchenko started her season with a bit of a slow start in Igls, but has come on strong as of late and sits fourth. Anna Berreiter has made the most of her shot on the World Cup tour (taking a spot that would likely be occupied by Natalie Geisenberger) with a silver medal in Whistler to sit fifth, while Summer Britcher is sixth despite an awful weekend in Whistler.
World Cup Skeleton
The more things change, the more they stay the same in men’s skeleton. After two race weekends in Lake Placid, Alexander Tretiakov and Martins Dukurs sit one-two, separated by only five points. Tretiakov won the second race of the season after a bronze to open the year, while Dukurs left upstate New York with a pair of silver medals.
Axel Jungk is third in points, only eight behind Tretiakov. The German finally won gold in Lake Placid after never finishing out of the top six but also never winning a medal in five previous visits.
Behind Jungk is teammate Felix Keisinger in fourth, followed closely by Latvia’s Tomass Dukurs and Germany’s Alexander Gassner. Just 40 points separate those three.
Marcus Wyatt has shown strength off the top for Great Britain, and heads into the break in ninth place. The United States’ Austin Florian is tied for 12th with Korea’s Jisoo Kim, while Kevin Boyer is Canada’s top male slider in 22nd.
On the women’s side, Jacqueline Lölling won a gold and bronze in Lake Placid to go into the break as the point leader, 25 points ahead of Janine Flock. Flock, who hasn’t finished out of the top five in Lake Placid since December 2013, continued her success in New York with a silver and bronze medal in two races. Elena Nikitina is third.
Mimi Rahneva goes into the break in fourth place with two fourth place finishes in Lake Placid, while Tina Hermann’s bronze in the first race of the season puts her in fifth. Kendall Wesenberg is the top American in sixth place with two top six finishes.
Two time Junior World Champion Anna Fernstädt is seventh after a pair of seventh place finishes.
Parabobsled World Cup
The Parabobsled World Cup has made two stops (with two races per stop), and thus far it’s been the Corie Mapp Show.
Mapp has won three of the four races (with a silver in the Lillehammer opener) to put himself 82 points ahead of Canada’s Lonnie Bissonnette. Mapp also won the European Championship to finish out the 2019 calendar year.
Bissonnette has the tour’s only other win to go with a silver and a pair of fifth place finishes to keep him ahead of Latvia’s Arturs Klots in third.
The United States has had at least four parabobsledders in every race thus far this season, with Guillermo Castillo leading the way. Castillo sits seventh overall wit a best finish of bronze in Oberhof.
Luge – Natural Track
The Natural Track World Cup was set to kick off on the weekend before Christmas in Winterleiten, but warmer than usual temperatures (much like almost everywhere else right now) postponed that race weekend into the new year.
Intercontinental Cup Skeleton
Christopher Grotheer has bounced back and forth between the World Cup and ICC tours over the past few years, and has found himself sliding on the Intercontinental Cup to start the 2019/2020 season. Over the first four races of the season Grotheer has been strong, medaling in all four events with a pair of golds (Sochi 1, Winterberg) to go with a silver and bronze. He holds a commanding lead over Great Britain’s Jerry Rice and Germany’s Fabian Küchler, who are second and third.
Canada’s Dave Greszczyszyn kicked the season off on the ICC tour and has four top ten finishes to sit eighth going into the winter break, while Mike Rogals is the top American in 13th.
On the women’s side, Susanne Kreher has been the class of the tour, with three golds and a silver to take a commanding lead into the break. Russia’s Renata Khuzina and Anastasia Trufanova sit second and third, with Trufanova finishing fourth in three of her four races to start the season.
Kelly Curtis has been strong for the United States, and is currently fourth overall. Katie Uhlaender missed the opening two races in Sochi, but has a bronze and a ninth to start her ICC season.
Despite a DNF in Königssee, Ashleigh Pittaway is seventh as the top British slider. Jaclyn LaBerge is the top Canadian on tour in 17th, having only started the two races in Germany.
European Cup Bobsled
The European Cup is already past their halfway point of the season, with five races complete in the 2-man and women’s bobsled disciplines and six in 4-man. While not a complete surprise, Romania’s Mihai Tentea has been nothing but consistent in 2-man bobsled, and that’s put him atop of the 2-man standings with three races to go. While not winning gold, Tentea has finished in the medals all but once, and even then had a fifth place finish.
In Tentea’s mirror is 2-man Olympic bronze medalist Oskars Melbardis, who is returning from a year off due to back injuries. Melbardis has a win, two silver and a fourth place to go with a 19th place finish in Winterberg. Maximilian Illmann is third despite missing a race in Altenberg. Teammate Richard Oelsner is two spots back in fifth, having won gold in the three races he’s entered in 2-man competition.
On the 4-man side of things, Tentea is looking up at Jonas Jannusch after six races. Jannusch has an 11th (Lillehammer) and 14th (Winterberg 2) place finish to go with his three gold and one silver medal. Despite those finishes he still finds himself nearly 100 points ahead of Tentea, and just over 100 points ahead of Melbardis, who sit second and third, respectively.
Lamin Deen is 13th in 4-man points after racing in only three of the six 4-man races. The Brit finished sixth in all three events.
Romania has the lead in two of the three European Cup bobsled disciplines. Andreea Grecu currently sits atop the women’s bobsled standings after five races on the strength of three wins and two bronze medals.
Behind Grecu is French pilot Margot Boch. Boch has scored two silver medals and four top-six finishes in five races to put herself 52 points ahead of Anne Lobenstein in third.
An Vannieuwenhuyse skipped the season opener but has finished in the top five in her four other races. The Belgian will join the World Cup tour when it moves to Europe in the new year.
For the Germans, Laura Nolte and Anna Köhler both have only run three of the five EC races, but each won a race in that time.
European Cup Skeleton
As busy as the European Cup bobsledders have been, it’s been a relatively slow start to the season for the skeleton sliders. With only three races into the season, Felix Seibel leads on the men’s side, five points ahead of German teammate Lukas Nydegger. Both men have a gold and silver, while Seibel’s fourth in the second Königssee out-ranked Nydegger’s fifth. In third is Krists Netlaus of Latvia, whose two bronze medals to go with his fifth has him well ahead of anyone else.
American Austin McCrary has been the top North American and currently sits 13th after three races with a top finish of tenth (Königssee 1). The men’s fields have consistently boasted fields well into the mid-30s.
On the women’s side, rookie Amelia Coltman has been oustanding for Great Britain. She’s won a gold, silver, and bronze to put herself 35 points ahead of Germany’s Josefa Schellmoser. Schellmoser sits only two points ahead of Latvia’s Endija Terauda, who won her first career gold medal in Königssee to end the first part of the season.
American Mystique Ro has come on strong since going to Europe with three top ten finishes including a sixth in the second Königssee race.
North American Cup Bobsled
After the folks at WinSport Calgary decided that “bulldozing our bobsled track” outweighed “doing our job”, the full North American Cup is scheduled to run between Lake Placid and Park City, with the season opening and closing in Lake Placid, and Park City hosting the middle three races.
In 2-man competition, Canadian Taylor Austin swept the Park City races to take a commanding lead over Korea’s Ji Hoon, who scored three fourth place finishes over that time. Jeff McKeen and Patrick Norton sit in third and fourth, separated by two points to put three Canadian sleds in the top four.
In sixth place is Nick Cunningham, who jumped out of retirement to race in the 2021 World Championships in Lake Placid and the 2022 Olympics. He was the only American male slider to compete in Park City.
Great Britain’s James Brown is seventh overall in 2-man competition.
Austin also leads on the 4-man side, ahead of McKeen by well over 100 points, having swept the Park City 4-man races as well. McKeen finished with a bronze medal in both of those races, just behind Cunningham. Cunningham’s three silver medals in those three races put him third overall.
Kristi Koplin has been strong in the races she’s entered over the last few years, and the 2019/2020 season has been no different. The American has three gold medals in Park City to go with a fourth and fifth in Lake Placid to take a commanding lead over Canadian Kori Hol into the Christmas break. Melissa Lotholz sits third overall, ahead of Shelby Williamson in her rookie year as a pilot and Aussie Ashleigh Werner, who rounds out the top five.
Hol, Lotholz, and Werner all traveled to compete in Europe to finish out the 2019 calendar year.
North American Cup Skeleton
The men’s skeleton fields have been relatively stout to kick the season off. Like Taylor Austin in bobsled, Nathan Crumpton swept the Park City NAC races to take a commanding lead into the Christmas break. Sliding for American Samoa now, Crumpton coupled those three wins with a silver and bronze in Lake Placid to position himself well ahead of Spain’s Ander Mirambell.
Mirambell, doing double duty as a coach and athlete, has managed to finish fifth in all five races thus far to put him solidly into second place. Behind him, three Chinese sliders round out the top five, with Zheng Yin one point ahead of Haifeng Zhu and 17 points ahead of Jing Zhang. Zhu, of note, has finished on the podium in all three races he’s entered.
Chris Strup has been the top-finishing American more times than not, with four top tens in five races. Troy Wilson has one top ten as the top Canadian.
Like Crumpton on the men’s side of things, Yaingqi Zhu swept the Park City races to take a lead into the Christmas break. Having skipped the opening race in Lake Placid, Zhu still holds a 57 point lead over Eunji Kim of Korea and a 60 point lead over the United States’ Lauren McDonald.
Natalie Coughlin is 12th overall as the top Canadian, only 4 points ahead of Janelle Khan.
