From Jaufental, ITA
(January 15, 2023) – Evelin Lanthaler won her fourth straight to start the 2022/2023 World Cup season, but it was anything but a cakewalk for the Italian.
Lanthaler had a .31 second lead over the previous day’s silver medalist, teammate Greta Pinggera, after one run. On the second run it was Pinggera who put down the fast time of the heat to take the lead with only Lanthaler to go. Lanthaler’s second run was .81 slower than her first, but just enoughto hold off Pinggera.
The margin of victory was .02 seconds.
The gold for Lanthaler was her 18th straight victory. She hasn’t lost since January 2020, and has one loss over her last 30 events. Over that time Pinggera has the one other win, and is the only woman other than Lathaler to win a gold since Tina Unterberger won the season opener in Küthai in 2016. It was also her 40th World Cup victory overall.
Italy swept the podium again in Jaufental, this time with Nadine Staffler taking third, .38 seconds ahead of Unterberger of Austria. Jenny Castiglioni rounded out the top five.
Katie Cookman finished 13th for the United States, while Canada’s Nadja Loder finished one spot back in 14th.
Lanthaler holds a 114 point lead over Pinggera with three races in the World Cup season. Unterberger is third, only 11 points behind Pinggera. Staffler is fourth, just 10 points behind Unterberger.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Evelin Lanthaler | ITA | 16 | 9.58 | 9.58 | 52.01 | 52.82 | 1:44.83 |
| 2 | Greta Pinggera | ITA | 13 | 9.62 | 9.57 | 52.32 | 52.53 | 1:44.85 |
| 3 | Nadine Staffler | ITA | 14 | 9.67 | 9.76 | 52.45 | 52.86 | 1:45.31 |
| 4 | Tina Unterberger | AUT | 15 | 9.68 | 9.70 | 52.57 | 54.12 | 1:45.69 |
| 5 | Jenny Castiglioni | ITA | 4 | 9.64 | 9.70 | 52.96 | 53.29 | 1:46.25 |
| 6 | Michelle Diepold | AUT | 11 | 9.73 | 9.91 | 53.23 | 53.25 | 1:46.48 |
| 7 | Riccarda Ruetz | AUT | 12 | 9.68 | 9.69 | 53.48 | 53.67 | 1:47.15 |
| 8 | Lisa Walch | GER | 10 | 9.74 | 9.79 | 53.73 | 53.62 | 1:47.35 |
| 9 | Sarah Schiller | GER | 8 | 9.74 | 9.84 | 54.73 | 54.17 | 1:48.90 |
| 10 | Verena Fuchs | AUT | 7 | 9.88 | 9.90 | 55.07 | 55.22 | 1:50.29 |
| 11 | Meta Mekina | SLO | 1 | 9.98 | 10.32 | 55.10 | 56.80 | 1:51.90 |
| 12 | Patricija Urbanc | CRO | 6 | 10.28 | 10.34 | 57.19 | 58.97 | 1:56.16 |
| 13 | Katie Cookman | USA | 2 | 10.62 | 10.63 | 59.28 | 59.24 | 1:58.86 |
| 14 | Nadja Loder | CAN | 3 | 12.27 | 11.92 | 70.18 | 68.22 | 2:18.40 |
