Kaysha Love finishes 2nd in World Cup monobob race, Emily Sweeney places 3rd in World Cup luge race

IGLS, Austria (AP) — Kaysha Love of the U.S. placed second in a World Cup monobob race on Saturday, her best finish of the season.

Love won a bronze in a two-woman race at Sigulda, Latvia, in December, then dealt with a virus over the holiday break and slumped a bit in her first three outings since that illness — finishing no better than 10th.

Love, a 2026 U.S. Olympic hopeful, roared back Saturday in Igls with the second-best time in both heats — finishing second to Lisa Buckwitz of Germany by 0.04 seconds. Laura Nolte of Germany was third.

In two-man earlier Saturday at Igls, Germany got its seventh overall sweep of the medal positions so far in this World Cup season. It’s happened three times in two-woman races and now four times in two-man events.

Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer got the win, Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schüller were second, and Adam Ammour and Nick Stadelmann were third.

Frank del Duca of the U.S. was a season-best fourth, his sled getting pushed by Charles Volker.

Luge

Julia Taubitz of Germany won a women's singles World Cup race at Winterberg, Germany, on Saturday, edging Madeleine Egle of Austria for the victory.

Emily Sweeney of the U.S. was third, her second singles medal of the season.

“I really struggled to find a clean line down, but I’m happy with a third, for sure,” Sweeney said.

In women’s doubles, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp of Austria won their fifth consecutive race to further solidify their lead over Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany in the points race.

The Degenhardt-Rosenthal sled was second for the fifth time in six races this season, while Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer of Italy were a season-best third.

Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby of the U.S. finished seventh but remained third overall in the season-long standings.

In men’s doubles, the German team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won their second race in six chances this season and moved atop the season-long standings.

Austrian sleds got the next two spots: Juri Gatt and Riccado Schoepf were a season-best second, while Yannick Muelle and Armin Frauscher placed third for the third consecutive race.

Martins Bots and Roberts Plume of Latvia were sixth, and that helped the Wendl-Arlt team move 11 points past them in the overall standings. Bots and Plume had a 39-point lead over the Germans entering Saturday.

The top U.S. sled in men’s doubles was Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa, which placed ninth.

Olympics venue update

Officials from all three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge — viewed the progress of construction at the track that is being rebuilt in Italy for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

If the track is not ready in time, the Olympic sliding competitions will be held in Lake Placid, New York.

Italy’s decision to rebuild the century-old track in Cortina at a cost of nearly $90 million has been met with fierce opposition by the International Olympic Committee. There were a number of other suggestions, such has holding sliding events at tracks in nearby Austria or Switzerland.

“Meanwhile, the schedule remains tight and challenging in order to be ready for the start of ice making at the beginning of March and the pre-homologation of the track at the end of March,” read a statement from Italian Olympic organizers. “The parties decided to continue a close and collaborative monitoring of progress, share information and meet again mid February.”

It isn't yet clear what will happen if the pre-homologation — a critical part of the track's testing and certification processes — can't go forward in March as scheduled.

Up next

Bobsled: World Cup two-woman and four-man Saturday at Igls.

Luge: World Cup men’s singles and team relay Sunday at Winterberg.

Skeleton: World Cup season finales for men’s, women’s and mixed team Feb. 7 at Lillehammer, Norway.

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