From Park City, USA
(December 13, 2025) – The racing in Park City had been somewhat unpredictable throughout the weekend, but in the women’s luge race USA’s Summer Britcher defended home turf going wire to wire over the two day event to take gold.
Britcher came into the event on an eight year gold medal drought. The first off in the first heat, the American threw down what would be the quickest run of the race to set a time that nobody would match. Behind her sat teammate Emily Fischnaller and Austria’s Dorothea Schwarz, with Fischnaller looking to find another podium in her storied career and Schwarz trying to secure a second straight podium to start the season.
In the second it was another American, Ashley Farquharson, who put on a show. Tenth after the first heat, Farquharson cleaned up mistakes and put down a nearly perfect run down the 2002 Olympic track to take the lead, a lead she would not relinquish for over ten minutes.
Eventually, Verena Hofer picked off Farquharson by just .004 to take the lead with the three leaders to go.
Schwarz was next, and while her second run was good, it wasn’t great as she fell behind both Hofer and Farquharson to secure Hofer’s first career podium finish.
Fischnaller took to the ice with just Britcher to go after her and looked to be well on her way to at the very least a silver medal run. But a mistake out of Curve 10 put Fischnaller into the wall and into a skid that dropped her out of the race for the medals and eventually 13th.
The final slider off the top was the first in the first heat. Britcher was quick off the top and put down a run that wasn’t as quick as Farquharson’s, but it was enough to stay ahead of Hofer and win gold for the first time since Lillehammer in the 2017/2018 season.
Winning in the United States meant the world to Britcher, as she told FIL media after the race.
“I feel so good,” Britcher said. “It’s been quite a while since I stood atop a podium. I can’t even describe it! But to do it here in front of my family, and share a podium with Ashley, the only thing better than getting a podium is sharing a podium with a teammate!”
Behind Britcher were two sliders on the podium for the first time. For Hofer, the medal was a bit of a surprise after a tough week in training.
“It’s my first ever podium and I had such a rough training week,” the silver medalist said. “So it’s really unexpected, but I put together two pretty good runs and I’m so happy!”
Farquarson, who’d been lingering around the podium with a myriad of fourth and fifth place finishes in her career, was equally ecstatic.
“This was really exciting. After my mistake yesterday I was like “I’ll just put it down” and I did! The track is a bit trickier this year and it shaped a little differently than usual. But I came back to the fact that I’ve probably had a thousand runs here over my life and leaned into my life and if it was difficult for me it was twice as difficult for everyone else.”
Schwarz and teammate Hannah Prock took fourth and fifth, with Merle Fräbel moving up from ninth in the first heat to finish sixth.
Canadians Embyr-Lee Susko and Caitlin Nash took 14th and 15th, with Trinity Ellis 18th. American Emma Erickson narrowly missed out on a second run and finished 22nd.
Germany’s Julia Taubitz, like Farquharson, had a big second run after an iffy first run and moved up from 15th to eighth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Summer Britcher | USA | 1 | 3.162 | 3.175 | 43.291 | 43.670 | 1:26.961 |
| 2 | Verena Hofer | ITA | 4 | 3.145 | 3.140 | 43.396 | 43.670 | 1:27.066 |
| 3 | Ashley Farquharson | USA | 10 | 3.168 | 3.164 | 43.539 | 43.531 | 1:27.070 |
| 4 | Dorothea Schwarz | AUT | 9 | 3.174 | 3.184 | 43.324 | 43.767 | 1:27.091 |
| 5 | Hannah Prock | AUT | 15 | 3.188 | 3.181 | 43.481 | 43.660 | 1:27.141 |
| 6 | Merle Fraebel | GER | 16 | 3.151 | 3.152 | 43.516 | 43.709 | 1:27.225 |
| 7 | Natalie Maag | SUI | 14 | 3.169 | 3.170 | 43.539 | 43.722 | 1:27.261 |
| 8 | Julia Taubitz | GER | 17 | 3.161 | 3.160 | 43.716 | 43.586 | 1:27.302 |
| 9 | Lisa Schulte | AUT | 13 | 3.176 | 3.175 | 43.415 | 43.909 | 1:27.324 |
| 10 | Kendija Aparjode | LAT | 12 | 3.158 | 3.169 | 43.498 | 43.834 | 1:27.332 |
| 11 | Anna Berreiter | GER | 11 | 3.155 | 3.152 | 43.508 | 43.845 | 1:27.353 |
| 12 | Barbara Allmaier | AUT | 7 | 3.192 | 3.197 | 43.632 | 43.826 | 1:27.458 |
| 13 | Emily Fischnaller | USA | 5 | 3.146 | 3.147 | 43.295 | 44.201 | 1:27.496 |
| 14 | Embyr-lee Susko | CAN | 3 | 3.191 | 3.192 | 43.599 | 44.016 | 1:27.615 |
| 15 | Caitlin Nash | CAN | 21 | 3.186 | 3.182 | 43.709 | 43.972 | 1:27.681 |
| 16 | Nina Zoeggeler | ITA | 18 | 3.197 | 3.190 | 43.777 | 43.974 | 1:27.751 |
| 17 | Elina Bota | LAT | 2 | 3.137 | 3.133 | 43.888 | 43.883 | 1:27.771 |
| 18 | Trinity Ellis | CAN | 19 | 3.177 | 3.182 | 43.745 | 44.045 | 1:27.790 |
| 19 | Sandra Robatscher | ITA | 24 | 3.190 | 3.173 | 43.865 | 44.155 | 1:28.020 |
| 20 | Yulianna Tunytska | UKR | 23 | 3.159 | 3.171 | 43.897 | 44.222 | 1:28.119 |
| 21 | Zane Kaluma | LAT | 26 | 3.184 | 44.013 | |||
| 22 | Emma Erickson | USA | 29 | 3.180 | 44.045 | |||
| 23 | Klaudia Domaradzka | POL | 28 | 3.178 | 44.062 | |||
| 24 | Olena Smaha | UKR | 22 | 3.174 | 44.204 | |||
| 25 | Hyesun Jung | KOR | 27 | 3.205 | 44.299 | |||
| 26 | Veronica Ravenna | ARG | 25 | 3.265 | 44.444 | |||
| 27 | Elsa Desmond | IRL | 30 | 3.212 | 44.641 | |||
| 28 | Ioana-corina Buzatoiu | ROU | 6 | 3.177 | 44.676 | |||
| DNF | Tove Kohala | SWE | 8 | 3.188 | DNF | |||
| DNF | Margita Sirsnina | LAT | 20 | 3.180 | DNF |