From Altenberg, GER
(December 18, 2021) – Christine de Bruin came from behind to win gold in Altenberg, leading a North American sweep of the podium.
de Bruin trailed Canadian teammate Cynthia Appiah by just .01 going into the second heat, with Laura Nolte and Kaillie Humphries just behind in third and fourth. While times were marginally slower in the second heat, Humphries managed to put down a second run that nearly mirrored her first and was the quickest of the heat. That was enough to move her ahead of Nolte with just the two Canadians to go.
de Bruin went first, and like her first run her second was clean and uneventful and enough to move her into the lead with only Appiah to go. Appiah was late out of Kreisel, and then had trouble setting up for the next few curves and those troubles dropped her back to second behind de Bruin to give her silver and de Bruin gold.
The gold was the first ever for de Bruin at the World Cup level.
“This is my first World Cup gold! I really though it would come in the two-woman sled, but here I am!” de Bruin told IBSF TV.
For the Canadian, the key was consistency.
“Last time we were here I made a mistake out of Kreisel because i was trying to be more perfect. This time I was just trying to be more consistent and not finess things and it led to two better runs.”
The silver medal for Appiah was her second silver of the season and third straight monobob podium finish.
Humphries won bronze, her third medal of the monobob season.
Nolte was the top German, in fourth position. Teammate Kim Kalicki and China’s Qing Ying both made major moves into the top six, with Kalicki to fifth from tenth and Ying to sixth from 11th.
Canada put all three sleds in the top ten, with Melissa Lotholz rounding out the Canadian effort in ninth place.
The United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor struggled to get into rhythm in Altenberg and finished 12th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Christine de Bruin | CAN | 5 | 6.27 | 6.22 | 59.81 | 60.15 | 1:59.96 |
| 2 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 10 | 5.96 | 5.93 | 59.80 | 60.29 | 2:00.09 |
| 3 | Kaillie Humphries | USA | 13 | 6.29 | 6.25 | 60.05 | 60.10 | 2:00.15 |
| 4 | Laura Nolte | GER | 7 | 6.14 | 6.16 | 59.85 | 60.54 | 2:00.39 |
| 5 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 11 | 6.29 | 6.27 | 60.33 | 60.20 | 2:00.53 |
| 6 | Qing Ying | CHN | 16 | 6.19 | 6.18 | 60.43 | 60.12 | 2:00.55 |
| 7 | Mariama Jamanka | GER | 4 | 6.27 | 6.26 | 60.15 | 60.48 | 2:00.63 |
| 8 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 14 | 6.08 | 6.09 | 60.32 | 60.45 | 2:00.77 |
| 9 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 9 | 6.13 | 6.16 | 60.17 | 60.62 | 2:00.79 |
| 10 | Nadezhda Sergeeva | RUS | 6 | 6.06 | 6.05 | 60.15 | 60.65 | 2:00.80 |
| 11 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 12 | 6.16 | 6.16 | 60.57 | 60.45 | 2:01.02 |
| 12 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 8 | 5.98 | 5.99 | 60.33 | 60.81 | 2:01.14 |
| 13 | Yooran Kim | KOR | 1 | 6.48 | 6.45 | 60.68 | 60.84 | 2:01.52 |
| 14 | Lubov Chernykh | RUS | 2 | 6.24 | 6.22 | 60.79 | 60.86 | 2:01.65 |
| 15 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 3 | 6.17 | 6.17 | 61.09 | 60.71 | 2:01.80 |
| 16 | Anastasiia Makarova | RUS | 17 | 6.29 | 6.27 | 61.23 | 61.61 | 2:02.84 |
| 17 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 15 | 6.33 | 6.33 | 62.10 | 61.04 | 2:03.14 |
| 18 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 18 | 6.48 | 6.46 | 61.92 | 61.48 | 2:03.40 |
| 19 | Lidiia Hunko | UKR | 20 | 6.82 | 6.82 | 63.12 | 61.94 | 2:05.06 |
| 20 | Martina Fontanive | SUI | 19 | 6.44 | 6.48 | 63.84 | 61.47 | 2:05.31 |
| 21 | Giada Andreutti | ITA | 21 | 6.56 | 67.67 |
