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Bobsled, skeleton WCups return to North America

Bobsled and skeleton World Cup races will return to North America this fall for the first time since before the pandemic, finally giving U.S. and Canadian athletes a chance to compete on home ice again.

The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation has decided to start the 2022-23 season with three stops in the U.S. and Canada before the Christmas break. The tour will open on the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, Canada, from Nov. 22-27, then move to the 2002 Olympic track in Park City, Utah, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, and from there it will go to Lake Placid, New York.

The first event in Lake Placid is the world push championships at the newly remodeled indoor facility at the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex on Dec. 7-8, followed by a regular World Cup the following week.

“After two seasons of not hosting IBSF World Cup competitions due to COVID-19, we are excited to be back in North America to start the upcoming season with events in both Park City and Lake Placid,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire said. “Building on the success from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, USA athletes are looking forward to racing on home tracks and in front of a home crowd.”

The most recent World Cup sliding event in North America was in 2019. All three North American tracks lost events — including world championship races in Whistler and Lake Placid — because of the pandemic, with international officials relocating those events to Europe and Asia.

American and Canadian sliders have spoken out in recent months about a wish for more races on home ice, and having essentially the first half of the bobsled and skeleton World Cup seasons in North America should be a boost to both programs.

It also will save on travel — the U.S. and Canadian teams won’t have to head to Europe for races this season until around Jan. 1. In many years, the North American teams have been in Europe before Christmas, returned home for holiday breaks, then had to eventually head back to Europe for the remainder of the season.

The remainder of the international bobsled and skeleton schedule for this coming season: Winterberg, Germany, on Jan. 3-8; two separate events in Altenberg, Germany, on Jan. 10-15 and Jan. 17-22; world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Jan. 24 through Feb. 5; the resumption of World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, on Feb. 7-12; and the finale in Sigulda, Latvia, on Feb. 14-19.

Luge’s World Cup schedule for the coming season has yet to be announced. Officials in Park City have expressed interest in playing host to a luge event this season as well.

Germany captures sixth gold medal in Olympic sliding events, as Canada’s Mirela Rahneva finishes fifth in skeleton

Germany’s Hannah Neise competes in heat 3 of women’s skeleton on Feb. 12, 2022.THOMAS PETER/Reuters

Hannah Neise has never won a World Cup medal. Or a medal at the world championships. Or a medal from the European championships.

She’s got an Olympic medal now.

And it’s the one that everybody wants.

Skeleton has a new champion, and she was a bit of a surprise winner. Neise, the 21-year-old who won the junior world title last year, became the first German woman to capture the gold medal in Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats at the Beijing Games on Saturday.

Her four-run time was 4 minutes, 7.62 seconds. Jaclyn Narracott of Australia — the midpoint leader of the event — won the silver in 4:08.24 and World Cup overall champion Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands took the bronze in 4:08.46.

Neise’s win might have been a bit of a stunner, but at this point, nothing Germany does on this track should be that surprising. After six sliding events at the Beijing Games — four in luge, two in skeleton — the Germans have captured six gold medals.

Oh, and all they have in the four remaining bobsled races — two for men, two for women — are the reigning Olympic champion drivers in Francesco Friedrich and Mariama Jamanka.

Tina Hermann of Germany was fourth and Mirela Rahneva of Canada, the first-run leader, was fifth.

Canada’s Mirela Rahneva after her run in heat 4 of the women’s skeleton event on Feb. 12, 2022.EDGAR SU/Reuters

Neise’s win capped a year that was unpredictable in women’s skeleton from the outset. There were eight World Cup races leading up to the Olympics, with five different winners and 11 different medalists — Neise not being one of them.

But there was a big hint that she could contend at the Olympics. There was a preseason race at the Yanqing Sliding Center after three weeks of international training this fall, and Neise was second in that event.

Clearly, she figured some things out about the new track faster than most everyone else did.

Katie Uhlaender, racing in her fifth Olympics, was the top American and finished sixth in 4:09.23. Uhlaender strained a muscle in her side before competing Saturday and still moved up two spots from where she was after Friday’s first two runs of the competition.

Kelly Curtis, the other U.S. slider in the field, was 21st.

This was the first time in six Olympic women’s skeleton competitions that a woman from Britain didn’t find her way to the podium. Alex Coomber won bronze in 2002, Shelley Rudman won silver in 2006, Amy Williams took gold in 2010, Lizzy Yarnold won gold in both 2014 and 2018 and Laura Deas captured bronze four years ago as well.

Deas was the top British slider in this race, placing 20th.

Narracott’s medal, though, had a very British feel — and that has nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth II remaining the head of state in 15 Commonwealth countries, including Australia. Narracott spends the season traveling and training with the British team, and her husband is retired British skeleton athlete and 2018 Olympic bronze medalist Dom Parsons.

Narracott was great.

Neise was just better. And the world’s most accomplished nation in sliding just continues to dominate the Beijing Games.

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