Humphries captures another monobob gold
U.S. takes the first two spots in the World Series event
Kaillie Humphries got her second win in as many attempts in a monobob sled this season on Saturday, leading a gold-silver finish for USA Bobsled and Skeleton.
Humphries had the fastest time in both heats and finished in 1 minute, 46.75 seconds. She was 0.62 seconds ahead of Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S., who took second for her first monobob medal.
Stephanie Schneider of Germany was third. Meyers Taylor trailed Schneider by 0.03 seconds after the first heat, then posted a second-run time that was 0.16 seconds faster than Schneider’s.
Monobob — one woman in the sled — will be offered at the Olympics for the first time at the Beijing Games next year, and it clearly is to Humphries’ liking.
Saturday’s race was the eighth event in this season Women’s Monobob World Series, which has been contested on a number of different sliding circuits — not just the World Cup tour. Most women have competed in no more than three of the races so far, given how not everyone is on the same circuit.
The U.S. has won four of the eight races so far; series leader Nicole Vogt has two of those wins for the Americans, while Humphries now has the other two.
In the two-man race Saturday, Germany’s Francesco Friedrich got his 10th win in 11 events this season to move to the brink of clinching the season title in that discipline.
Friedrich and Thorsten Margis finished twotenths of a second ahead of Germany’s Johannes Lochner and Eric Franke. Austria’s Benjamin Maier and Kristian Huber were third, about a second back of the winning time.
Friedrich now leads Lochner by 191 points with one World Cup two-man race left; all Friedrich needs to do to clinch that title is finish 26th or better in the finale at Igls, Austria, next weekend.
Codie Bascue and Kris Horn were 11th for the U.S., while Geoff Gadbois and Adrian Adams were 23rd.
The women’s bobsled and four-man races are Sunday.
Women’s downhill: Olympic champion Sofia Goggia is dominating the World Cup downhill season like no woman since ski great Lindsey Vonn.
Goggia won her fourth straight downhill to tie a World Cup streak last achieved by Vonn in 2018. The Italian star finished 0.27 seconds faster than Lara Gut-behrami as both thrived on icy snow slicker than in Friday’s race at Crans-montana also won by Goggia. Goggia’s teammate Elena Curtoni was third, 0.60 back, ending Breezy Johnson’s streak of four third-place finishes in downhill. Johnson was fifth, 0.89 behind Goggia, giving the United States its most consistent threat in downhill since Vonn’s stellar career ended two years ago. Threetime overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin is skipping speed races this season and is sixth in the standings.
Men’s downhill: The second men’s World Cup downhill on the Streif course was pushed back a day after rain and snowfall postponed the storied race on Saturday. The downhill was rescheduled for Sunday morning, and a super-g initially planned for that time slot was postponed to Monday morning.
Luge: A year ago, Germany’s Felix Loch endured the worst season of his career. This year, he’s enjoying perhaps the most dominant season in men’s luge history. Loch is the World Cup men’s overall champion for the seventh time, clinching the title Saturday with his ninth win in 10 races this season. For the U.S., Jonny Gustafson was 18th and Chris Mazdzer 19th.