Sweeney fourth as Germany sweeps women’s singles and takes gold in relay

Team USA took the bronze medal in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup relay at the Whistler Sliding Center, site of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The race was the final event of the international racing circuit before the holiday break.

The U.S. team consisted of Emily Sweeney, Zack DiGregorio/Sean Hollander, Tucker West, and the women’s doubles team of Chevonne Forgan/Sophie Kirkby. They finished just under a tenth of a second behind the silver medal winning team from Austria.

In addition to the World Cup, the 13th FIL America-Pacific Championships were held as a race-within-a-race format during the women’s singles competition. The championships recognize the top three athletes from North America, South America, and Australia. 

Team Relay

For the first time in history, women’s doubles were a part of the team relay. The relay occurs without interruption, featuring four sleds and six athletes. It starts with women’s singles, then men’s doubles, men’s singles, and finally the women’s doubles. Sleds cannot leave the start handles until the previous sled hits a pad at the bottom of the track and opens a gate.

Sweeney (Lake Placid, N.Y.) was the first sled to hit the ice for the United States, with DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.)/Hollander (Lake Placid, N.Y.) finding speed after a difficult week at the Whistler course. West (Ridgefield, Conn.), who had the fastest time out of the gate, struggled in curves 15/16, so it was up to Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.)/Kirkby (Ray Brook, N.Y.) to race clean. The duo hit the pad with a time of two minutes 49.311 seconds, enough to win the bronze medal.

It was a strong weekend for the Germans, with nine medals, including gold across all disciplines. The relay squad, led by Julia Taubitz, the duo of Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt, Max Langenhan and the women’s doubles team of Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal stood at the top of the podium with a time of 2:48.655.

Madeleine Egle, the doubles teams of Thomas Gatt/Martin Schöpf, Jonas Mueller and Selina Egle/Lara Kipp, took the silver for Team Austria in 2:49.215

Team Germany is the overall World Cup relay leader with 100 points, followed by Team Austria with 85 points, and Team USA with 70 points.

Women’s Singles

After sitting in the silver medal position following the first heat, the three-time Olympian Sweeney hit the right wall out of curve 16 and landed in fourth place with a time of 1:18.221, resulting in a German sweep of the podium. 2022 Olympian Ashley Farquharson (Park City, Utah) placed seventh in 1:18.238.

Last week’s World Cup bronze medalist Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) skidded out of curve 16 and hit the right wall on her second run. She finished the day in 12th place with a time of 1:18.413.

Making her USA Luge debut on the World Cup circuit was Sophia Gordon, who had two clean runs and placed 25th in a time of 1:19.655. Gordon (Sussex, Wisc.) placed 13th at last weekend’s Whistler Junior World Cup.

The America-Pacific Championships were won by Sweeney, with Farquharson in second place. Taking bronze was Canada’s Embyr-Lee Susko in a time of 1:18.404.

The German podium sweep was led by Taubitz with a time of 1:18.066, with Anna Berreiter in second in 1:18.177, and Merle Fraebel third in 1:18.179.

Taubitz remains the World Cup overall leader with 285 points followed by Austria’s Madeleine Egle in second with 215. Farquharson is third with 191 and Sweeney in fourth with 172, while Britcher is in sixth with 157 and Gordon is 29th with 16 points.

USA Luge relay squad reactions

Sean Hollander: “It’s pretty nice to get third here in the relay. We [had] a pretty rough week of training, so it was nice to bounce back.”

Zack DiGregorio: “Like Sean said, yesterday wasn’t too kind to us. Two runs we weren’t happy with, so to put one good one down for the relay, we’re stoked for that.”

Tucker West: “Today we got third in the relay, and it was the inaugural relay of having the women’s doubles in it, so it was fun and a fun race with some new teammates. We didn't know what to expect with four slides going. It's always hard to get three sleds down with clean runs, so to get a fourth in there is tough. My run itself wasn't anything special. [There were] definitely some mistakes, but I think Team USA as a whole has a lot of speed and a lot of potential so we're all very excited for the year to come.”

Chevonne Forgan: “It was so exciting to be part of the first team relay with women's doubles, and some medal and we had a lot of fun.”

Sophie Kirkby: “It was definitely fun to join the relay team this time.”

Emily Sweeney: “Like Tucker said, we all had a lot of, I'd say, missed opportunities this weekend. But we also came through when it mattered today in team relay so I'm happy we could do that. And I'm just excited to see what the team does for the rest of the year. Happy Holidays!”

For more results on the 2023-2024 World Cup season, visit 

https://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-27

EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup action will return following the holiday break on January 6-7, 2024, in Winterberg, Germany. The World Championships are slated to take place in Altenberg, Germany on January 27-28, 2024. To live stream the races and to view archived competitions, please visit the FIL’s YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel. The entire World Cup and World Championship season can be accessed from this portal.

Team USA takes bronze in team relay

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