From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 21, 2026) – Austria’s Sarah Baumgartner slid to her first career gold medal in St. Moritz as she cruised to a victory over China’s Siji Song to wrap up the 2025/2026 Europe Cup women’s skeleton season.
Baumgartner led Switzerland’s Sara Schmied after the first heat by just .18, with Song lingering around in third, nearly three tenths back.
The second heat saw USA’s Michelle Toukan, in the hunt for the season title, take the lead from South Africa’s Nicole Burger to solidify another top six finish. Viktoriia Fettel edged out Toukan by just two hundredths. A bumpy second run dropped Great Britain’s Ashlyn Bland out of the running for the medals with the top three still to come.
Up next was Song, who’s second effort matched Baumgartner’s race-leading first run to take the lead handily from Fettel. Schmied, on her home ice, couldn’t match Song’s pace and fell well behind the Chinese slider.
That left Baumgartner atop the Swiss track alone as the final slider off the top for the season. Like in the first heat, her start wasn’t great but it was enough to keep pace with the women before her. Like in her first run, she found time all the way down the track, going from the 21st quickest split at the first split to the quickest run of the race at the bottom to win by .33 over Song, with Schmied .88 back in third as the only other slider within a second of her.
Fettel was fourth, Toukan fifth, and Burger sixth.
Back in 19th was Viktoria Hansova, who was 23rd after the first run but had a decent second slide to finish within the top 20 and win the season title ahead of Toukan by 46 points. Song was third overall on the season, with Yuxin Liang and Bland fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Sarah Baumgartner | AUT | 19 | 5.47 | 5.55 | 70.50 | 70.46 | 2:20.96 |
| 2 | Siji Song | CHN | 9 | 5.43 | 5.40 | 70.79 | 70.50 | 2:21.29 |
| 3 | Sara Schmied | SUI | 4 | 5.28 | 5.30 | 70.68 | 71.16 | 2:21.84 |
| 4 | Viktoriia Fettel | AIN | 25 | 5.45 | 5.41 | 70.97 | 71.01 | 2:21.98 |
| 5 | Michelle Toukan | USA | 3 | 5.38 | 5.37 | 71.12 | 70.88 | 2:22.00 |
| 6 | Nicole Burger | RSA | 8 | 5.30 | 5.29 | 71.35 | 70.87 | 2:22.22 |
| 7 | Marie Angerer | GER | 1 | 5.60 | 5.55 | 71.36 | 70.92 | 2:22.28 |
| 8 | Anna Saulite | AUT | 14 | 5.53 | 5.47 | 71.27 | 71.19 | 2:22.46 |
| 9 | Carolin Andrä | SUI | 24 | 5.39 | 5.38 | 71.12 | 71.56 | 2:22.68 |
| 10 | Ashlyn Bland | GBR | 10 | 5.31 | 5.33 | 70.93 | 71.77 | 2:22.70 |
| 11 | Polina Tiurina | AIN | 23 | 5.47 | 5.49 | 71.73 | 71.18 | 2:22.91 |
| 12 | Sarah Lüscher | SUI | 29 | 5.76 | 5.76 | 71.73 | 71.38 | 2:23.11 |
| 13 | Yangqi Zhu | CHN | 2 | 5.39 | 5.30 | 71.95 | 71.20 | 2:23.15 |
| 14 | Annia Unterscheider | AUT | 6 | 5.54 | 5.49 | 71.21 | 72.19 | 2:23.40 |
| 15 | Sha’Londa Terry | USA | 20 | 5.41 | 5.35 | 72.00 | 71.62 | 2:23.62 |
| 16 | Angel Osakue | ITA | 27 | 5.45 | 5.38 | 71.65 | 72.01 | 2:23.66 |
| 17 | Charlize Reimann | GER | 12 | 5.68 | 5.65 | 71.98 | 71.85 | 2:23.83 |
| 18 | Isabella Fassnidge | GBR | 26 | 5.26 | 5.33 | 72.08 | 71.81 | 2:23.89 |
| 19 | Alena Frolova | AIN | 16 | 5.33 | 5.45 | 71.89 | 72.04 | 2:23.93 |
| 19 | Viktoria Hansova | GER | 7 | 5.36 | 5.37 | 72.46 | 71.47 | 2:23.93 |
| 21 | Leah Kidd | GBR | 18 | 5.45 | 5.44 | 71.67 | 72.29 | 2:23.96 |
| 22 | Polina Knyazeva | AIN | 28 | 5.43 | 5.44 | 72.13 | 72.02 | 2:24.15 |
| 23 | Maria Votz | GER | 21 | 5.62 | 5.63 | 72.44 | 72.56 | 2:25.00 |
| 24 | Carolin Meier | GER | 15 | 5.58 | 5.56 | 72.60 | 72.75 | 2:25.35 |
| 25 | Guanshuo Wang | CHN | 17 | 5.42 | 5.46 | 72.51 | 74.12 | 2:26.63 |
| 26 | Katharina Eigenmann | LIE | 13 | 5.66 | 72.65 | |||
| 27 | Sarah Klose | GER | 31 | 5.67 | 72.82 | |||
| 28 | Florijn De Haas | NED | 34 | 5.95 | 73.24 | |||
| 29 | Mariia Ivchuk | UKR | 22 | 5.82 | 73.43 | |||
| 30 | Regan Walker | GBR | 30 | 5.50 | 73.44 | |||
| 31 | Eire Rowland-Evans | IRL | 11 | 5.49 | 74.12 | |||
| 32 | Shannon Galea | MLT | 5 | 5.68 | 74.30 | |||
| 33 | Yevheniia Kovalchuk | UKR | 33 | 5.94 | 74.43 | |||
| 34 | Mira Österlund | SWE | 32 | 5.82 | 76.42 |