From Lake Placid, USA
(March 8, 2025) – The United States won their first gold medal of the 2025 IBSF World Championships in an event they’ve excelled at all season long: the Skeleton Mixed Team event.
The race kicked off as it had throughout the season, with Spain pushing off the top. From there, neither Belgium or either Swiss team were able to match Clara Aznar and Adrian Rodriguez’s combined downtime.
Kelly Curtis and Dan Barefoot took over for the United States with a pair of big runs on their home track. They held the lead for a handful of sleds until Italy’s Alessia Crippa and Amedeo Bagnis took the lead.
That lead was fleeting for Crippa and Bagnis, but not for Italy as Valentina Margaglio and Mattia Gaspari took the lead by just .19 over their teammates.
Mystique Ro won the silver medal in the women’s skeleton race earlier in the weekend, while Austin Florian finished sixth with the top start in every heat. As USA-1, they slid to the lead ahead of the Italians.
The Americans held the lead past the second Chinese team. Up next were the German duo of Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk. Kreher got ahead of Ro, but Jungk couldn’t quite match Florian’s effort as the Germans fell behind China and into a tie with the Margaglio and Gaspari.
Up next were Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston, the former had the fourth quickest run in three of her four runs, while Weston won the world championship by 1.9 seconds. The duo couldn’t quite match the Americans over their two runs and fell into second place at the time. Their teammates, Amelia Coltman and Marcus Wyatt also could not match Ro and Florian, and fell two spots behind their British teammates.
After Ro and Florian held back Jacqueline Pfeifer and Christopher Grotheer, it was down to Austria’s Janine Flock and Samy Maier to keep the Americans from gold.
Flock had a slow reaction start, and couldn’t match Ro’s downtime, which left it on Maier to beat out Florian. Maier was a bit behind off the top, and couldn’t match Florian. The Austrian duo crossed the line in tenth, giving the Americans the gold, Great Britian’s Stoecker and Weston silver, and China’s Zhao and Lin bronze.
It was the second world championship medal for the United States, while Great Britain got their third on top of Weston and Wyatt’s gold and silver on Friday. It’s also the United States’ first gold in World Championship skeleton since Katie Uhlaender in 2012.
Coltman and Wyatt were fourth for Great Britain, with Curtis and Barefoot 11th as the second American team.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Reac W | Time W | Reac M | Time M | Total |
| 1 | Mystique Ro / Austin Florian | USA-1 | 11 | 0.19 | 58.15 | 0.20 | 56.38 | 1:54.53 |
| 2 | Tabitha Stoecker / Matt Weston | GBR-1 | 14 | 0.24 | 58.31 | 0.19 | 56.32 | 1:54.63 |
| 3 | Dan Zhao / Qinwei Lin | CHN-2 | 12 | 0.16 | 58.67 | 0.20 | 56.14 | 1:54.81 |
| 4 | Amelia Coltman / Marcus Wyatt | GBR-2 | 15 | 0.16 | 58.51 | 0.19 | 56.41 | 1:54.92 |
| 5 | Jacqueline Pfeifer / Christopher Grotheer | GER-2 | 16 | 0.14 | 58.22 | 0.18 | 56.72 | 1:54.94 |
| 6 | Valentina Marglagio / Mattia Gaspari | ITA-2 | 9 | 0.15 | 58.59 | 0.13 | 56.57 | 1:55.16 |
| 6 | Susanne Kreher / Axel Jungk | GER-1 | 13 | 0.12 | 58.09 | 0.15 | 57.07 | 1:55.16 |
| 8 | Alessia Crippa / Amedeo Bagnis | ITA-1 | 8 | 0.21 | 59.15 | 0.22 | 56.20 | 1:55.35 |
| 9 | Yuxi Li / Wenhao Chen | CHN-1 | 10 | 0.17 | 58.57 | 0.20 | 56.79 | 1:55.36 |
| 10 | Janine Flock / Samuel Maier | AUT-1 | 17 | 0.31 | 58.62 | 0.13 | 56.75 | 1:55.37 |
| 11 | Kelly Curtis / Daniel Barefoot | USA-2 | 5 | 0.25 | 58.84 | 0.18 | 57.26 | 1:56.10 |
| 12 | Julia Erlacher / Alexander Schlintner | AUT-2 | 7 | 0.16 | 59.53 | 0.16 | 56.92 | 1:56.45 |
| 13 | Anna Fernstädt / Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 6 | 0.24 | 58.47 | 0.23 | 58.45 | 1:56.92 |
| 14 | Clara Aznar / Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 1 | 0.26 | 59.97 | 0.16 | 57.38 | 1:57.35 |
| 15 | Sara Schmied / Livio Summermatter | SUI-2 | 3 | 0.22 | 59.94 | 0.19 | 57.61 | 1:57.55 |
| 16 | Julia Simmchen / Vinzenz Buff | SUI-1 | 4 | 0.22 | 60.23 | 0.20 | 57.61 | 1:57.84 |
| 17 | Aline Pelckmans / Colin Freeling | BEL | 2 | 0.13 | 60.01 | 0.19 | 58.68 | 1:58.69 |