From Whistler, CAN
(November 25, 2022) – Bianca Ribi led a Canadian one-two in the IBSF World Cup monobob season opener in Whistler to win her first World Cup gold.
Ribi, making her first World Cup start as a pilot, came into the second heat just .o1 out of the lead behind two-woman bobsled Olympic champion Laura Nolte. On the second run Ribi put down a strong start, but was one of the few athletes whose clean second run was slower than their first. She still took the lead over teammate Cynthia Appiah on the strength of that first run.
That left Nolte between Ribi and gold. Nolte’s start was strong, and she appeared to be running away with gold. However, Whistler’s 50/50 curve plays no favorites. Nolte crashed and while she did cross the line, she fell back to seventh to give Ribi gold.
Cynthia Appiah, the track’s start record holder, nearly matched that record with a strong 5.39 start, the quickest of the race. Both drives were clean and quick and good enough to hold off track record holder and Olympic monobob champion Kaillie Humphries.
Humphries, making her first World Cup start in Whistler for the United States, made a small mistake in her first run that left her in fourth after the first heat. Her second run was the quickest of the race and enough to finish just .02 behind Appiah for third.
Melanie Hasler of Switzerland put down two strong runs to finish in fourth place, while Kim Kalicki was the only German of the three to not crash on her second run and finished fifth.
The United States’ Nicole Vogt finished sixth, a career best in World Cup action. Riley Compton finished eighth in her first ever IBSF World Cup start to round out the American effort.
The race’s field was only nine sleds deep, as a combination of post-Olympic retirements, young sliders replacing them not having enough races to be on World Cup, and funding cuts to various teams kept many teams out.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 1 | 5.62 | 5.57 | 55.41 | 55.48 | 1:50.89 |
| 2 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 7 | 5.40 | 5.39 | 55.85 | 55.31 | 1:51.16 |
| 3 | Kaillie Humphries | USA | 6 | 5.50 | 5.48 | 55.97 | 55.21 | 1:51.18 |
| 4 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 2 | 5.56 | 5.47 | 56.03 | 55.25 | 1:51.28 |
| 5 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 3 | 5.56 | 5.53 | 56.11 | 55.57 | 1:51.68 |
| 6 | Nicole Vogt | USA | 8 | 5.84 | 5.79 | 56.30 | 56.19 | 1:52.49 |
| 7 | Laura Nolte | GER | 9 | 5.43 | 5.42 | 55.40 | 57.88 | 1:53.28 |
| 8 | Riley Compton | USA | 4 | 5.83 | 5.77 | 57.45 | 56.54 | 1:53.99 |
| 9 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 5 | 5.43 | 5.37 | 56.36 | 58.52 | 1:54.88 |
