From Winterberg, GER
(January 11, 2026) – The 2025/2026 World Cup season kicked off with a win in Winterberg for Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal, where the duo held off Selina Egle and Lara Kipp as well as teammates Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina, who won silver and bronze behind them.
Fast forward a month and the FIL World Cup returned to Winterberg and the results were the same for all three teams involved.
Degenhardt and Rosenthal held a slim lead over Egle and Kipp after the first heat, with Eitberger and Matschina just behind in third. In the second heat Eitberger and Matschina had a decent run, enough to hold off teammates Elisa-Marie Storch and Pauline Patz, but their run wasn’t quite what they’d wanted and they’d clearly left a bit on the table.
Up next were Egle and Kipp. The World Cup leaders were a bit off the pace at the top, but by midway through their run were ahead of the Germans. Their second run was the quickest of the heat to that point and guaranteed them no worse than a silver medal.
But Degenhardt and Rosenthal were quicker everywhere. Their start was the second quickest of the heat and by the second split the duo were ahead with a lead they would not give up on their way to their second gold of the season, with Egle and Kipp silver and Eitberger and Matschina bronze.
“We’re back,” Degenhardt confidently told FIL TV after the race. “We tried to go all in this week and try to be a little more consistent. Last week was tough for us. We came back stronger…the track here is Cheyenne’s home track and I feel pretty confident here as well, so we tried to be confident on the track and it worked out well!”
Storch and Patz were fourth, with the two American teams of Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby in fifth and Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon sixth.
Canada’s Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan were ninth.
With five races down in the 2025/2026 World Cup season, Egle and Kipp lead Eitberger and Matschina by 45 points, with Degenhardt and Rosenthal third, Forgan and Kirkby fourth, and Anda Upite and Madara Pavlova fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 9 | 3.154 | 3.156 | 43.389 | 43.321 | 1:26.710 |
| 2 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 12 | 3.174 | 3.185 | 43.416 | 43.394 | 1:26.810 |
| 3 | Eitberger / Matschina | GER | 14 | 3.169 | 3.172 | 43.636 | 43.443 | 1:27.079 |
| 4 | Storch / Patz | GER | 7 | 3.174 | 3.192 | 43.550 | 43.652 | 1:27.202 |
| 5 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 10 | 3.172 | 3.153 | 43.616 | 43.699 | 1:27.315 |
| 6 | Chan / Gordon | USA | 15 | 3.172 | 3.173 | 43.714 | 43.705 | 1:27.419 |
| 7 | Robezniece / Bogdanova | LAT | 6 | 3.173 | 3.161 | 43.691 | 43.732 | 1:27.423 |
| 8 | Upite / Pavlova | LAT | 13 | 3.193 | 3.182 | 43.764 | 43.700 | 1:27.464 |
| 9 | Podulsky / Allan | CAN | 8 | 3.166 | 3.158 | 43.834 | 43.862 | 1:27.696 |
| 10 | Falkensteiner / Huber | ITA | 3 | 3.201 | 3.190 | 43.939 | 43.908 | 1:27.847 |
| 11 | Riedl / Lerch | AUT | 1 | 3.239 | 3.211 | 43.836 | 44.062 | 1:27.898 |
| 12 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 5 | 3.217 | 3.205 | 44.158 | 44.241 | 1:28.399 |
| 13 | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 2 | 3.182 | 3.221 | 44.369 | 44.135 | 1:28.504 |
| 14 | Domowicz / Piwkowska | POL | 4 | 3.212 | 3.254 | 44.056 | 44.520 | 1:28.576 |
| 15 | Gulijienaiti / Zhao | CHN | 16 | 3.225 | 3.269 | 44.575 | 44.406 | 1:28.981 |
| 16 | Praxova / Spitzova | SVK | 17 | 3.251 | 3.247 | 44.892 | 44.827 | 1:29.719 |
| DNF | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 11 | 3.151 | DNF |