From Königssee, GER
Jan. 24, 2021 – Kim Kalicki has been a fixture on the podium ever since her first World Cup start during the 2019/2020 season, never missing the podium in her first seven starts. But she’d also never won World Cup gold over that time, winning silver four times and bronze three times.
In Könissee she finally took the final step to the of the podium, beating the world’s best in the process.
Coming into the second heat, Kalicki found herself in third place behind defending World Cup champion Stephanie Schneider and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elana Meyers Taylor. On that second run Kalicki threw down the fastest run of the race, over .4 faster than her first run. Elana Meyers Taylor went next, and had a good run going until a skid out of the S curves dropped her behind Kalicki but securely on the podium, no worse than third.
With gold secured for Germany, Stephanie Schneider came down but, like Meyers Taylor, she couldn’t quite match Kalicki’s run and fell to silver, giving her teammate the gold medal.
Canada’s Christine de Bruin was .13 faster in her second run to finish fourth, .01 ahead of Austria’s Kati Beierl in fifth. Mariama Jamanka and Kaillie Humphries rounded out the top six, tied for six. Humphries was in a new sled that she had only a couple of runs in.
With one race left in the World Cup season, Beierl holds a 51 point lead over Kim Kalicki. Beierl will have a chance to clinch the title on her home track in Igls, she will need a sixth place finish or better to win regardless of Kalicki does.
It was another solid day for the Canadian IBSF World Cup program. On top of de Bruin’s fourth place run, Alysia Rissling finished eighth with two solid runs. Melissa Lotholz made her second World Cup start as a pilot, and finished 15th after a strong second run.
Great Britain’s Mica McNeill finished 14th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kalicki / Strack | GER | 8 | 5.23 | 5.21 | 51.07 | 50.64 | 1:41.71 |
| 2 | Schneider / Seer | GER | 6 | 5.25 | 5.22 | 50.97 | 50.99 | 1:41.96 |
| 3 | Meyers Taylor / Hoffman | USA | 7 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 51.00 | 51.17 | 1:42.17 |
| 4 | de Bruin / Villani | CAN | 11 | 5.31 | 5.30 | 51.20 | 51.07 | 1:42.27 |
| 5 | Beierl / Onasanya | AUT | 9 | 5.28 | 5.28 | 51.30 | 50.98 | 1:42.28 |
| 6 | Jamanka / Mark | GER | 5 | 5.32 | 5.31 | 51.36 | 50.94 | 1:42.30 |
| 6 | Humphries / Gibbs | USA | 14 | 5.29 | 5.27 | 51.20 | 51.10 | 1:42.30 |
| 8 | Rissling / Richardson Wilson | CAN | 15 | 5.31 | 5.28 | 51.31 | 51.11 | 1:42.42 |
| 9 | Sergeeva / Mamedova | RUS | 2 | 5.33 | 5.34 | 51.43 | 51.18 | 1:42.61 |
| 10 | Fontanive / Morell | SUI | 4 | 5.37 | 5.38 | 51.37 | 51.25 | 1:42.62 |
| 11 | Vannieuwenhuyse / Aerts | BEL | 3 | 5.38 | 5.38 | 51.53 | 51.15 | 1:42.68 |
| 12 | Walker / Blizzard | AUS | 10 | 5.32 | 5.37 | 51.37 | 51.43 | 1:42.80 |
| 13 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 12 | 5.35 | 5.35 | 51.51 | 51.36 | 1:42.87 |
| 14 | McNeill / Williamson | GBR | 13 | 5.43 | 5.48 | 51.63 | 51.45 | 1:43.08 |
| 15 | Lotholz / Voss | CAN | 16 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 51.69 | 51.56 | 1:43.25 |
| 16 | Osipenko / Egoshenko | RUS | 18 | 5.40 | 5.42 | 51.75 | 51.62 | 1:43.37 |
| 17 | Kim / Joo | KOR | 17 | 5.58 | 5.60 | 51.94 | 51.67 | 1:43.51 |
| 18 | Andreutti / Schenk | ITA | 1 | 5.53 | 5.53 | 52.22 | 52.16 | 1:44.38 |
