The New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (Olympic Authority) announces that the International Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup season will conclude March 21-23 at Mt Van Hoevenberg.
The three-day competition in Lake Placid is the final stop of the 2023-2024 World Cup season that began Nov. 17 in Yanqing, China, and includes two weeks of World Championships races in Winterberg, Germany, from Feb. 22 through March 3. Lake Placid will be the last chance for the world’s best sliders to collect points in the overall season standings, with points champions crowned at the conclusion of the event.
Medals will be awarded in the following disciplines: men’s and women’s skeleton, two-woman bobsleigh, two-man bobsleigh, four-man bobsleigh and women’s monobob. Each sled will take two runs down the track with the best combined time determining their finishing positions.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (subject to change)
Thursday, March 21 | Skeleton
11:30 a.m. – Men’s Skeleton: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – Men’s Skeleton Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
3:30 p.m. – Women’s Skeleton: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – Women’s Skeleton Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
Friday, March 22 | Bobsleigh
10 a.m. – Women’s Monobob: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – Women’s Monobob Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
2 p.m. – 2-Man Bobsleigh: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – 2-Man Bobsleigh Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
Saturday, March 23 | Bobsleigh
10 a.m. – 2-Woman Bobsleigh: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – 2-Woman Bobsleigh Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
2 p.m. – 4-Man Bobsleigh: Heat 1, followed by Heat 2 and Flower Ceremony | Sliding Track
TBD – 4-Man Bobsleigh Awards (30 minutes after Flower Ceremony) | MVH Awards Plaza
THE COMPETITION
The IBSF World Cup features the best bobsled and skeleton athletes in the world vying for podium finishes and overall positions in the World Cup standings. The event in Lake Placid will also give competitors a chance to race on the same track that will host the Bobsled and Skeleton World Championships in 2025.
Mt Van Hoevenberg, site of the sliding events during the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games, has been a regular stop on the IBSF World Cup tour for decades and has hosted 10 World Championships for bobsled and four in skeleton. Last season, the World Cup came to Lake Placid in mid-December 2022 during the early stages of its calendar.
The Americans had a strong showing on their home track in Lake Placid last season as three-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries took gold in the 2-woman bobsleigh event and silver in women’s monobob. Kelly Curtis won bronze in women’s skeleton for her first career World Cup medal.
With Humphries out for the season in anticipation of the birth of her first child, the U.S. women’s bobsled team has a new look this season. Elana Meyers Taylor, a four-time Olympian with five Olympic medals on her résumé, has returned to action and has been competing in women’s monobob and 2-woman bobsleigh. Kaysha Love, a 2022 Olympian as a push athlete for Humphries, has successfully transitioned into the driver’s seat, piloting 2-woman and monobob sleds.
Mystique Ro, Katie Uhlaender, and Sara Roderick lead the way for the U.S. women’s skeleton team, while Austin Florian and Daniel Barefoot top the men’s team. Ro, known as one of the fastest starters in the sport, has had a particularly strong World Cup season this year with two second-place finishes.
Germany has long been established as the team to beat in all bobsled and skeleton disciplines, sweeping all but one of the 2022-2023 overall World Cup points titles. Humphries was the only non-German to win an overall title last season with her first-place finish in monobob. Francisco Friedrich, who swept the two- and four-man gold medals at both the 2018 Pyeonchang Games and the 2022 Beijing Games, and fellow countryman Johannes Lochner have dominated men’s bobsled for many years.
VENUE HISTORY
Mt Van Hoevenberg was the site of the first bobsleigh track in the United States (and first outside of Europe), originally built in 1930 specifically for the 1932 Winter Olympic Games. The bobsled track was rebuilt with refrigeration in 1978 in advance of the 1980 Games. A new track designed to host all sliding sports, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, was constructed in 2000 for the first and only Goodwill Games in 2000.
The sliding track is part of winter sports complex that also includes a Nordic skiing and biathlon facility homologated for the highest levels of international competition. The track and Nordic skiing areas are linked by the 55,000 square foot Mountain Pass Lodge, which includes food, beverage, and retail options along with the only indoor push start facility in the United States and an indoor climbing wall.
Mt Van Hoevenberg hosted the season-opener of the International Luge Federation (FIL) World Cup season in early December 2023 and will be the site of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Mountain Bike World Series in September.
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