From Altenberg, GER
(January 17, 2026) – Kaillie Armbruster Humphries came into the final World Cup race of the 2025/2026 season in a bit of a medal drought by her standards, not having won hardware since the 2022/2023 season in monobob. But she had spent the entire 2025/2026 season lingering around the podium. Altenberg is possibly the track she’s best on, and she showed why on Saturday.
The American led a tight field of sleds after the first heat, with Laura Nolte, Bree Walker, Kati Beierl and Lisa Buckwitz all contending for medals behind her.
The second heat saw Buckwitz take the lead from Melissa Lotholz, then hold that spot as Kati Beierl couldn’t quite replicate the medal magic she’s had this season.
But Walker has been on a tear over the majority of the last season and a half, and slid to the lead well ahead of the reigning World Cup champion with just Nolte and Armbruster Humphries to go.
Nolte was next. While the goal was a gold medal in the race, she just needed a decent finish around Walker to lock up her first career monobob Crystal Globe. The German started ahead of Walker, but fell back late after a little tap out of Curve 9 cost her some speed. She finished just behind Walker, enough for both a medal in the race and to secure the World Cup title.
Armbruster Humphries was last off the block. She started with a .07 advantage but gave up most of that at the start, with the two women nearly even as Armbruster Humphries came out of the Omega curve. But the American had a nearly flawless drive the remainder of her way down, and pulled away to win her first gold medal of the monobob season and fifth of her career.
The gold was also Armbruster Humphries’ first medal in monobob since winning gold in Sigulda late in the 2022/2023 World Cup season.
Walker took silver, her fifth medal of the season, while Nolte won bronze for her sixth.
Buckwitz took fourth place, a tenth ahead of Beierl, with Lotholz sliding to sixth.
It was a big day for the Canadian bobsled program. Behind Lotholz, Cynthia Appiah slid to eighth place. But the big news had to do with who was the third Canadian in the field.
Bianca Ribi had dominated the North American Cup season to the point she was ahead of teammate Kristen Bujnowski in combined points coming into the last weekend before Olympic quotas were set. So she got the nod in Altenberg and needed to not win a medal, but at least stay ranked around where Switzerland’s Inola Blatty was to get a third sled into the Games.
Ribi came into the second heat well behind Blatty, with Ribi 17th and Blatty up in 11th. But Ribi threw down a huge second run, the seventh quickest of the heat, to move up the order. Ribi would eventually land in tenth place, picking off two Swiss sleds in the process to put Canada in great position going into Sunday’s two-woman race.
It was far less dramatic for the American women. Elana Meyers Taylor slid to another top ten in ninth, while Kaysha Love struggled to find her way in Altenberg and finished 17th.
Laura Nolte took home the golden Crystal Globe as the season champion ahead of Bree Walker in second and Lisa Buckwitz in third. Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Kati Beierl rounded out the top five in the season standings.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kaillie Armbruster Humphries | USA | 8 | 6.17 | 6.19 | 59.43 | 59.54 | 1:58.97 |
| 2 | Bree Walker | AUS | 10 | 6.07 | 6.10 | 59.50 | 59.60 | 1:59.10 |
| 3 | Laura Nolte | GER | 11 | 6.05 | 6.07 | 59.47 | 59.69 | 1:59.16 |
| 4 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 9 | 5.96 | 5.95 | 59.67 | 59.81 | 1:59.48 |
| 5 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 5 | 6.10 | 6.14 | 59.64 | 59.94 | 1:59.58 |
| 6 | Melissa Lotholz | CAN | 4 | 6.07 | 6.12 | 59.81 | 59.82 | 1:59.63 |
| 7 | Margot Boch | FRA | 12 | 6.27 | 6.28 | 59.83 | 59.97 | 1:59.80 |
| 8 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 13 | 6.06 | 6.08 | 59.99 | 59.84 | 1:59.83 |
| 9 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 6 | 6.12 | 6.09 | 59.93 | 60.13 | 2:00.06 |
| 10 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 20 | 6.28 | 6.24 | 60.52 | 59.92 | 2:00.44 |
| 11 | Qing Ying | CHN | 17 | 6.16 | 6.21 | 60.50 | 60.05 | 2:00.55 |
| 12 | Debora Annen | SUI | 15 | 6.27 | 6.25 | 60.46 | 60.14 | 2:00.60 |
| 13 | Inola Blatty | SUI | 16 | 6.16 | 6.16 | 60.28 | 60.44 | 2:00.72 |
| 14 | Kim Kalicki | GER | 14 | 6.26 | 6.27 | 60.40 | 60.39 | 2:00.79 |
| 15 | Georgeta Popescu | ROU | 2 | 6.39 | 6.39 | 60.27 | 60.55 | 2:00.82 |
| 16 | Kelly van Petegem | BEL | 3 | 6.31 | 6.37 | 60.65 | 60.25 | 2:00.90 |
| 17 | Kaysha Love | USA | 7 | 5.94 | 6.02 | 60.37 | 60.59 | 2:00.96 |
| 18 | Simidele Adeagbo | NGR | 1 | 6.21 | 6.21 | 60.50 | 60.76 | 2:01.26 |
| 19 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 19 | 6.45 | 6.46 | 61.03 | 60.67 | 2:01.70 |
| 20 | Sarah Blizzard | AUS | 18 | 6.45 | 5.50 | 61.46 | 60.90 | 2:02.36 |