From Whistler, CAN
(November 22, 2025) – Columbia’s Laura Vargas overcame a .45 second deficit to win gold in the second North American Cup skeleton race of the 2025/2026 season.
Vargas trailed South Africa’s Nicole Burger after one heat, with Race 1 winner Shannon Galea sitting in third.
In the second heat, Galea took the lead from Hannah Russwurm. The Finn had thrown down a big run of her own to take the lead from ninth place and hold it all the way until Galea’s run.
Vargas was next, and on a much slower track than her first run she still put down a competitive run to take the lead from Galea with just Burger to go.
Burger was quick off the top, and early on had a clean run going. But some issues midway through her run dropped her behind Vargas and she was unable to make up time at the bottom on her way to silver, with Vargas taking gold and Galea silver.
Russwurm finished fourth, South Korea’s Sujung Hong fifth and USA’s Liesel Baker sixth.
Katie Tannenbaum finished seventh for the US Virgin Islands.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Laura Vargas | COL | 7 | 5.32 | 5.35 | 57.05 | 58.31 | 1:55.36 |
| 2 | Nicole Burger | RSA | 4 | 5.07 | 5.05 | 56.60 | 58.95 | 1:55.55 |
| 3 | Shannon Galea | MLT | 5 | 5.19 | 5.31 | 57.33 | 58.73 | 1:56.06 |
| 4 | Hannah Russwurm | FIN | 3 | 5.14 | 5.14 | 58.24 | 58.36 | 1:56.60 |
| 5 | Sujung Hong | KOR | 8 | 5.03 | 5.01 | 57.58 | 59.34 | 1:56.92 |
| 6 | Liesel Baker | USA | 10 | 5.25 | 5.24 | 58.02 | 59.13 | 1:57.15 |
| 7 | Katie Tannenbaum | ISV | 1 | 5.25 | 5.28 | 57.66 | 59.51 | 1:57.17 |
| 8 | Ana Torres Quevedo | ESP | 6 | 5.38 | 5.39 | 58.10 | 59.94 | 1:58.04 |
| 9 | Eire Rowland-Evans | IRL | 2 | 5.20 | 5.19 | 58.64 | 59.61 | 1:58.25 |
| 10 | Emily Bateman | CAN | 9 | 5.16 | 5.11 | 59.10 | 59.91 | 1:59.01 |
| 11 | Grace Otto | USA | 13 | 5.26 | 5.24 | 58.91 | 61.33 | 2:00.24 |
| 12 | Madeline Parra | CAN | 16 | 5.52 | 5.48 | 57.70 | 64.32 | 2:02.02 |
| 13 | Julia Hamilton | CAN | 11 | 5.37 | 5.40 | 60.55 | 61.68 | 2:02.23 |