From Winterleiten, AUT
(December 20, 2025) – Riccarda Ruetz won her first career World Cup gold medal on Saturday as she held off a duo of Italians for the win.
Italy’s Nina Castiglioni was the first slider off the top in the first heat, and set a time of 1:02.47 that held for the better part of the heat. It wasn’t until sister Jenny Castiglioni slid from the 17th starting position that her lead fell, and only by .12.
Ruetz was the last slider off the top in the first heat and put down a blistering time that was .48 quicker than Jenny Castiglioni’s time to take a substantial lead going into the second run.
In that second heat, Lisa Walch took the lead as the top non-Italian or Austrian in the field, but quickly relinquished it to Nina Castiglioni. Nina then held her spot as Jenny could not match her second run pace with just Ruetz to go.
Ruetz was quick out of the gate with the only sub-three second start times of the race. That start plus a nearly flawless run on her home track gave her a substantial .87 second victory over Nina Castiglioni, with sister Jenny in third as the only other slider within a second of the Austrian.
The win was the first in women’s natural track/alpine luge for Austria since Tina Unterberger took gold in 2016.
Walch took fourth, just ahead of Italy’s Lottie Mulser in fifth and Nadine Staffler in sixth.
The United States’ Katie Cookman was 11th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Riccarda Ruetz | AUT | 20 | 2.91 | 2.92 | 61.87 | 62.64 | 2:04.51 |
| 2 | Nina Castiglioni | ITA | 1 | 3.11 | 3.11 | 62.47 | 62.91 | 2:05.38 |
| 3 | Jenny Castiglioni | ITA | 17 | 3.02 | 3.06 | 62.35 | 63.11 | 2:05.46 |
| 4 | Lisa Walch | GER | 18 | 3.14 | 3.17 | 62.77 | 63.02 | 2:05.79 |
| 5 | Lotte Mulser | ITA | 10 | 3.07 | 3.05 | 62.87 | 63.14 | 2:06.01 |
| 6 | Nadine Staffler | ITA | 19 | 3.08 | 3.07 | 62.98 | 63.43 | 2:06.41 |
| 7 | Naomi Thöni | AUT | 16 | 3.14 | 3.14 | 63.64 | 63.38 | 2:07.02 |
| 8 | Alina Schaffenrath | AUT | 5 | 3.27 | 3.26 | 63.80 | 63.45 | 2:07.25 |
| 9 | Hannah Nagele | AUT | 13 | 3.19 | 3.29 | 63.65 | 63.94 | 2:07.59 |
| 10 | Ruby Holland-Moritz | GER | 8 | 3.09 | 3.16 | 65.80 | 65.72 | 2:11.52 |
| 11 | Katie Cookman | USA | 14 | 3.24 | 3.24 | 66.23 | 67.28 | 2:13.51 |
| 12 | Patricija Urbanc | CRO | 15 | 3.46 | 3.46 | 67.99 | 68.69 | 2:16.68 |
| 13 | Magdalena Enig | GER | 11 | 3.29 | 3.36 | 68.76 | 68.75 | 2:17.51 |
| 14 | Maja Poda | POL | 7 | 3.30 | 3.24 | 70.03 | 69.69 | 2:19.72 |
| 15 | Tereza Stehlikova | CZE | 2 | 3.82 | 3.78 | 81.16 | 79.25 | 2:40.41 |
| 16 | Daniela Mittermair | ITA | 21 | 3.09 | 63.62 | |||
| 17 | Tina Stuffer | ITA | 12 | 3.07 | 63.75 | |||
| 18 | Carina Miller | AUT | 9 | 3.15 | 64.80 | |||
| 19 | Emma Ruetz | AUT | 6 | 3.23 | 65.28 |