From Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA
(November 22, 2025) – Melanie Hasler stood at the top of the Olympic track in Cortina d’Ampezzo looking to be the first Swiss pilot since Fabienne Meyer (Königssee 2014) to win a gold medal in World Cup action. A few minutes before, Germany’s Laura Nolte had put down the quickest run that the new track had seen by a women’s monobob pilot to take the lead and hold it after a strong effort by USA’s Kaysha Love fell just short.
Hasler’s start was a hundredth quicker. Early in her run the lines were good, but the run got bumpy late and not only did Hasler drop out off the top of the podium, but she fell out of the top six into seventh, handing the opening race gold to Nolte.
Nolte had started the second heat in third place, behind Love and Hasler, but cleaned up a few sections that weren’t terribly bad to begin with. The speed was there and she finished .15 ahead of Love for her fifth World Cup monobob gold and 25th World Cup gold altogether.
Love took silver, another solid race for the still relatively new pilot. Her start in the second heat of 5.37 was the start record of the race, .01 ahead of Lisa Buckwitz.
Aussie monobob specialist Bree Walker took bronze. She entered the second heat in fifth place but a quick and clean second effort was the second quickest of the heat and enough to catapult her into the medals.
The United States, as it often does, had a strong showing in women’s monobob. Kaillie Armbruster Humphries took fourth, only .1 off of the podium. Germany’s Buckwitz was fifth, while Canada’s Melissa Lotholz leapt from tenth to sixth in the second heat.
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah had a disastrous first run but managed to sneak into the second heat. Her second effort was .69 quicker and enough to put her all the way up to 13th.
The United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor never could quite get into the groove in Cortina and finished 19th.
Sarah Blizzard, in the second Australian sled, finished 23rd, two spots ahead of Adele Nicoll of Great Britain.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Laura Nolte | GER | 8 | 5.43 | 5.44 | 59.80 | 59.67 | 1:59.47 |
| 2 | Kaysha Love | USA | 11 | 5.39 | 5.37 | 59.74 | 59.88 | 1:59.62 |
| 3 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 9 | 5.48 | 5.47 | 59.85 | 59.78 | 1:59.63 |
| 4 | Kaillie Armbruster Humphries | USA | 6 | 5.56 | 5.56 | 59.81 | 59.92 | 1:59.73 |
| 5 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 4 | 5.41 | 5.38 | 59.90 | 60.07 | 1:59.97 |
| 6 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 15 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 60.06 | 59.93 | 1:59.99 |
| 7 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 7 | 5.48 | 5.47 | 59.73 | 60.28 | 2:00.01 |
| 8 | Margot Boch | FRA | 16 | 5.55 | 5.57 | 60.05 | 60.39 | 2:00.44 |
| 9 | Maja Voigt | DEN | 3 | 5.40 | 5.38 | 60.32 | 60.13 | 2:00.45 |
| 10 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 13 | 5.66 | 5.68 | 59.97 | 60.49 | 2:00.46 |
| 11 | Debora Annen | SUI | 5 | 5.61 | 5.62 | 60.37 | 60.18 | 2:00.55 |
| 12 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 14 | 5.50 | 5.49 | 60.09 | 60.65 | 2:00.74 |
| 13 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 10 | 5.49 | 5.53 | 60.75 | 60.06 | 2:00.81 |
| 14 | Ying Qing | CHN | 2 | 5.57 | 5.52 | 60.59 | 60.23 | 2:00.82 |
| 15 | Kelly van Petegem | BEL | 18 | 5.58 | 5.55 | 60.52 | 60.39 | 2:00.91 |
| 16 | Kristen Bujnowski | CAN | 17 | 5.51 | 5.47 | 60.03 | 61.03 | 2:01.06 |
| 16 | Linda Weiszewski | POL | 1 | 5.56 | 5.54 | 60.54 | 60.52 | 2:01.06 |
| 18 | Inola Blatty | SUI | 19 | 5.52 | 5.50 | 60.53 | 60.57 | 2:01.10 |
| 19 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 12 | 5.56 | 5.55 | 60.64 | 61.26 | 2:01.90 |
| 20 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 22 | 5.73 | 5.74 | 60.67 | 61.84 | 2:02.51 |
| 21 | Lea Haslwanter | AUT | 23 | 5.65 | 60.96 | 1:00.96 | ||
| 22 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 26 | 5.57 | 61.01 | 1:01.01 | ||
| 23 | Sarah Blizzard | AUS | 24 | 5.66 | 61.07 | 1:01.07 | ||
| 24 | Patricia Tajcnarova | CZE | 21 | 5.65 | 61.38 | 1:01.38 | ||
| 25 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 20 | 5.64 | 61.87 | 1:01.87 | ||
| 26 | Simidele Adeagbo | NGR | 25 | 5.69 | 62.76 | 1:02.76 |