Team USA takes silver in Altenberg World Cup relay

Sweeney fifth in women’s singles 

ALTENBERG, Germany—For the fourth time this World Cup season, Team USA stood on the podium in the relay competition, winning a consecutive silver medal following last weekend’s podium in the 2024 FIL World Championships on the same track.  

The United States squad consisted of three-time Olympian Emily Sweeney, first-year team Dana Kellogg/Frank Ike, three-time Olympian Tucker West, and two-time World Championships bronze medalists Chevonne Forgan/Sophia Kirkby.  

In women’s singles, Sweeney placed fifth with a comeback in the second heat after a tough first run.  

Like yesterday, the weather played a significant role in today's competitions.  

Team relay 

Heavy downpours and high winds created a scenario that gave early starters an advantage in the team relay. Romania used an early start number and relatively good ice, along with four clean runs from Ioana-Corina Buzatoiu, Tudor-Stefan Handaric/Sebastian Motzca, Valentin Cretu, and Raluca Stramaturaru/Mihaela-Carmen Manolescu. They clocked a run time of three minutes 16.301 seconds. 

Team Latvia, the third squad to compete, moved ahead of the Romanians with a time of 3:14.445. Elina Vitola, Martins Bots/Roberts Plume, Kristers Aparjods, and Anda Upite/Kitija Bogdanova used near perfect runs for what would become the race-winning heat. 

Sweeney (Lake Placid, N.Y.) who was first out the start gate for the United States, had a clean run and hit the pad sending Kellogg (Chesterfield, Mass.)/Ike (Lititz, Pa.) to continue the work and set the tone for West. West (Ridgefield, Conn.) had the fastest start of the relay before opening the gate for Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.)/Kirkby (Ray Brook, N.Y.). The duo crossed the finish line and hit the pad hanging over the track with a time of 3:15.448. 

Teams from Austria and Germany followed the U.S squad, but a combination of errors and poor track conditions made it impossible to catch the Latvian, United States and Romanian teams, who finished first, second and third, respectively.  

It was the first-ever World Cup relay medal for Romania.

“We just raced in the team relay, and we finished in second place,” said West. “We are really excited, and we had four strong runs. It’s been tough weather conditions this week, but we got through it, and we are excited to be racing this relay with [the women’s doubles this year]. It’s been a lot of fun.” 

Despite issues in today’s relay, Team Germany leads the World Cup overall standings with 340 points. Team Austria is in second with 330, and Team USA is third with 285.  

Women’s Singles 

The wild weather played an even more significant role in the women’s competition, which saw Sweeney move from 26th place after the first heat to fifth place. She struggled at the start on her first run but responded with the second fastest start of the day in the second heat. She finished with a time of 1:48.322. 

2024 Lake Placid World Cup bronze medalist and three-time Olympian Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) could not find speed in the first heat and hit the wall out of curve 14 on her second run. She finished in tenth with a time of 1:48.478. 2022 Olympian Ashley Farquharson (Park City, Utah) skid into curve 15 in the first heat, but with a cleaner second run landed in 11th place in 1:48.501. 

Race winner Julia Taubitz of Germany also made a big move after an error in her first heat. She went from 22nd to take the gold in 1:47.971. This eclipsed the amazing move from 21st to first by her teammate Max Langenhan in yesterday’s men’s competition. Latvia’s Elina Vitola took the silver medal with a time of 1:48.120, and in third was Austria’s Lisa Schulte with a time of 1:48.268. 

Taubitz leads the overall World Cup points with 555, followed by Austria’s Madeleine Egle in second with 457, and Germany’s Anna Berreiter in third with 357. Farquharson is in fourth with 335 points, Sweeney is sixth with 319, and Britcher is eighth with 269.  

For more results on the 2023-2024 World Cup season, visit 

EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup action continues in Oberhof, Germany, on February 10-11. To live stream the races and to view archived competitions, please visit the FIL’s YouTube channel: