From Oberhof, GER
(January 24, 2026) – Selina Egle and Lara Kipp continued their outstanding 2025/2026 Olympic season with another gold medal, this time in the second race weekend in Oberhof.
A week prior they’d won silver behind Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal in a close race. Saturday’s event was anything but close, with the Austrians cruising to victory ahead of Germany’s Elisa-Marie Storch and Pauline Patz.
Egle and Kipp slid to a narrow lead over Italy’s Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer after the first heat, with Storch and Patz back in third nearly a tenth off the lead. The other two German teams had trouble in their first run, with Degenhardt and Rosenthal in seventh after trouble midway through their run and Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina in 14th after a first heat crash.
The second heat saw Degenhardt and Rosenthal slide to the lead from seventh and hold the leader’s box for three teams until eventually being picked off by Storch and Patz.
Vötter and Oberhofer were next, and were just barely out-slid by Storch and Patz, with the Germans finishing just .009 ahead of the Italians.
Egle and Kipp weren’t the quickest team in the second heat, that honor belonged to Degenhardt and Rosenthal, but they were quicker than everyone else with more than enough in the bank to slide to a .155 victory over Storch and Patz, with Vötter and Oberhofer third.
The win was the third on the season for the Austrian duo. They have yet to finish outside of the top two in any race this season.
The track was in tip-top shape but with hard ice comes hard racing. But Egle said the team enjoyed the challenge.
“It was pretty hard today, the ice was so hard,” Egle said. “It was perfect conditions but we were definitely on the limit! We were really happy with first place!”
Silver for Storch and Patz was their first ever World Cup podium. As expected, they were elated.
“We’re totally happy,” Storch exclaimed. “Our first podium! We didn’t expect it but we’re happier than ever! It wasn’t perfect but it was two good runs!”
While Vötter and Oberhofer would have liked to have a gold, the goal is to get to Cortina, so a bronze seemed to be fine.
“The first run was awesome one, the second one not so good,” Oberhofer said. “But we’re happy and ready for the Olympics!”
Degenhardt and Rosenthal slid to fourth place, just ahead of Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby in fifth. Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova were sixth for Latvia.
Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon slid to seventh place for the United States, their fourth top seven on the season, while Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan slid to 11th.
With two races to go in the World Cup season, Egle and Kipp hold a commanding lead ahead of Eitberger and Matschina. Degenhardt and Rosenthal are third, with Forgan and Kirkby fourth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Egle / Kipp | AUT | 10 | 7.727 | 7.696 | 42.012 | 42.074 | 1:24.086 |
| 2 | Storch / Patz | GER | 12 | 7.639 | 7.668 | 42.110 | 42.131 | 1:24.241 |
| 3 | Vötter / Oberhofer | ITA | 3 | 7.621 | 7.634 | 42.044 | 42.206 | 1:24.250 |
| 4 | Degenhardt / Rosenthal | GER | 15 | 7.592 | 7.625 | 42.465 | 42.037 | 1:24.502 |
| 5 | Forgan / Kirkby | USA | 14 | 7.682 | 7.654 | 42.323 | 42.354 | 1:24.677 |
| 6 | Robezniece / Bogdanova | LAT | 11 | 7.647 | 7.666 | 42.449 | 42.252 | 1:24.701 |
| 7 | Chan / Gordon | USA | 8 | 7.795 | 7.797 | 42.346 | 42.459 | 1:24.805 |
| 8 | Upite / Pavlova | LAT | 6 | 7.781 | 7.769 | 42.561 | 42.577 | 1:25.138 |
| 9 | Falkensteiner / Huber | ITA | 1 | 7.832 | 7.835 | 43.019 | 42.583 | 1:25.602 |
| 10 | Stetskiv / Mokh | UKR | 9 | 7.704 | 7.714 | 42.916 | 42.908 | 1:25.824 |
| 11 | Podulsky / Allan | CAN | 2 | 7.706 | 7.735 | 43.150 | 42.760 | 1:25.910 |
| 12 | Stramaturaru / Manolescu | ROU | 4 | 7.777 | 7.811 | 43.154 | 43.115 | 1:26.269 |
| 13 | Domowicz / Piwkowska | POL | 7 | 7.872 | 7.815 | 43.397 | 43.206 | 1:26.603 |
| 14 | Eitberger / Matschina | GER | 13 | 7.696 | 7.686 | 68.275 | 42.084 | 1:50.359 |
| 15 | Praxova / Spitzova | SVK | 5 | 7.924 | 7.944 | 91.113 | 44.560 | 2:15.673 |