From Whistler, CAN
(November 29, 2023) – Canada’s Melissa Lotholz took her first gold in North American Cup competition as a pilot with a win in Whistler.
Lotholz held a slim .02 lead over teammate Erica Voss going into the second heat, with Slovakia’s Viktoria Cernanska and Canadian Mackenzie Stewart both also within a tenth of a second of the lead.
In the second heat, Stewart took the lead from teammate Eden Wilson with the top three to go. She was soon unseated by Cernanska, whose second run was .16 quicker. Voss’s second run was more than enough to put her into the lead and guarantee her first career medal as a pilot.
That left Lotholz to go. In her first race on Canadian soil after a year off, Lotholz had the quickest push of the contenders and had the fastest split of anyone the rest of the way down to win gold by .29 over Voss and .35 over Cernanska.
The gold was her third in a monobob, but first in the North American Cup as a pilot. Her previous monobob wins were a part of the Monobob World Series and IBSF Monobob Events that were held before the advent of a proper regional tour. The gold was also her fifth straight between monobob and two-woman since her return to action.
For Voss, the silver medal was her first ever as a pilot. She had previously won a bronze medal on the brakes of Alysia Rissling in European Cup action.
Cernanska’s bronze medal was her fifth medal in seven NAC races.
Stewart and Wilson completed a dominant day for the Canadian women, having taken four of five of the top slots. USA’s Riley Tejcek finished sixth.
South Korea’s Inyoung park finished seventh, while USA’s Sylvia Hoffman and Lauren Brzozowski rounded out the nine sled field.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 5 | 5.43 | 5.47 | 55.89 | 56.13 | 1:52.02 |
| 2 | Erica Voss | CAN | 7 | 5.52 | 5.55 | 55.91 | 56.40 | 1:52.31 |
| 3 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 3 | 5.66 | 5.66 | 55.96 | 56.41 | 1:52.37 |
| 4 | Mackenzie Stewart | CAN | 9 | 5.58 | 5.59 | 55.97 | 56.57 | 1:52.54 |
| 5 | Eden Wilson | CAN | 2 | 5.66 | 5.77 | 56.45 | 56.57 | 1:53.02 |
| 6 | Riley Tejcek | USA | 4 | 5.74 | 5.74 | 56.17 | 57.27 | 1:53.44 |
| 7 | Inyoung Park | KOR | 6 | 5.91 | 5.74 | 57.03 | 56.67 | 1:53.70 |
| 8 | Sylvia Hoffman | USA | 8 | 5.41 | 5.40 | 57.39 | 57.10 | 1:54.49 |
| 9 | Lauren Brzozowski | USA | 1 | 5.57 | 5.60 | 58.21 | 56.71 | 1:54.92 |
