From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 10, 2026) – Australia’s Bree Walker has always been very good in the single-seat monobob, but in the 2025/2026 World Cup season she’s stepped up even more, and found herself once again atop a podium. This time in St. Moritz.
Walker grabbed the lead in the first heat and looked on as nobody else could get within .14 of her downtime. Germany’s Lisa Buckwitz sat second and Swiss pilot Melanie Hasler third on her home track.
Seemingly nowhere in medal contention after the first heat was Kati Beierl. Ninth after the first heat, the Austrian found herself a quarter of a second behind Hasler after the first heat with a number of great pilots ahead of her.
But Beierl found an extra .08 in her second start and put down a huge drive that gave her the lead from Germany’s Laura Nolte. She then held that lead as pilot after pilot came down behind her.
It wasn’t until Hasler’s second effort that Beierl would be bounced out of the leader’s box. Her second run was a tenth slower than Beierl’s, but enouhg to give her the lead by .15 with just Buckwitz and Walker to go.
Buckwitz’s second effort looked to be going to plan early, but a disastrous exit of Horseshoe ate up any time gained and dropped her not just behind Hasler but entirely out of the medals.
That left just Walker between Hasler and her first World Cup gold medal. Like most women in the field, Walker found a little extra time in her start. She then put on a driving clinic on the historic track finding an extra .7 in her second run on her way to a .53 second victory over Hasler, with Beierl third.
The win was the third in the last four races for Nolte. Silver for Hasler was the third of her monobob career. For Beierl, bronze was her third medal and fourth top five in four races.
Reigning Olympic champion Kaillie Armbruster Humphries led the way for the United States in fourth place, with her former brakewoman Melissa Lotholz just behind her in fifth for Canada.
Laura Nolte finished sixth as the top German after a slower first run left her 11th after the first heat.
Elana Meyers Taylor was ninth for the United States, up from tenth in the first heat, while Kaysha Love was 14th.
Cynthia Appiah had a tough first run, but the Canadian had a solid second effort to move up from 15th to 11th.
Adele Nicoll was 17th for Great Britain, while Sarah Blizzard was 20th in the second Australian sled.
With one race to go in the World Cup season, Laura Nolte holds a 33 point advantage over Bree Walker. Lisa Buckwitz is third, with Kaillie Humphries fourth and Melanie Hasler fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Bree Walker | AUS | 9 | 5.84 | 5.82 | 71.98 | 71.29 | 2:23.27 |
| 2 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 5 | 5.82 | 5.79 | 72.21 | 71.59 | 2:23.80 |
| 3 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 7 | 5.90 | 5.82 | 72.46 | 71.49 | 2:23.95 |
| 4 | Kaillie Armbruster Humphries | USA | 12 | 5.94 | 5.92 | 72.28 | 71.71 | 2:23.99 |
| 5 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 6 | 5.85 | 5.83 | 72.27 | 71.78 | 2:24.05 |
| 6 | Laura Nolte | GER | 4 | 5.85 | 5.79 | 72.54 | 71.58 | 2:24.12 |
| 7 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 13 | 5.80 | 5.75 | 72.12 | 72.02 | 2:24.14 |
| 8 | Debora Annen | SUI | 19 | 5.96 | 5.90 | 72.54 | 71.84 | 2:24.38 |
| 9 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 11 | 5.90 | 5.89 | 72.47 | 71.99 | 2:24.46 |
| 10 | Margot Boch | FRA | 14 | 6.04 | 6.03 | 72.43 | 72.07 | 2:24.50 |
| 11 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 8 | 5.88 | 5.79 | 72.67 | 71.88 | 2:24.55 |
| 12 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 17 | 6.02 | 6.00 | 72.42 | 72.14 | 2:24.56 |
| 13 | Inola Blatty | SUI | 21 | 5.93 | 5.88 | 72.36 | 72.23 | 2:24.59 |
| 14 | Kaysha Love | USA | 10 | 5.84 | 5.80 | 72.58 | 72.02 | 2:24.60 |
| 15 | Simona de Silvestro | ITA | 27 | 6.22 | 6.18 | 72.64 | 72.57 | 2:25.21 |
| 16 | Linda Weiszewski | POL | 22 | 5.94 | 5.94 | 72.89 | 72.63 | 2:25.52 |
| 17 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 20 | 5.96 | 5.95 | 72.98 | 72.62 | 2:25.60 |
| 18 | Patricia Tajcnarova | CZE | 24 | 5.98 | 5.97 | 73.09 | 72.70 | 2:25.79 |
| 19 | Kelly van Petegem | BEL | 25 | 6.04 | 6.08 | 73.01 | 72.79 | 2:25.80 |
| 20 | Sarah Blizzard | AUS | 26 | 6.19 | 6.20 | 72.95 | 73.11 | 2:26.06 |
| 21 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 23 | 6.16 | 73.24 | |||
| 22 | Qing Ying | CHN | 1 | 5.98 | 73.57 | |||
| 23 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 18 | 5.94 | 73.66 | |||
| 24 | Lea Haslwanter | AUT | 2 | 6.06 | 74.01 | |||
| 25 | Giada Andreutti | ITA | 3 | 6.28 | 74.45 | |||
| DNS | Kristen Bujnowski | CAN | 15 | DNS | ||||
| DSQ | Maja Voigt | DEN | 16 | DSQ |