2025 Whistler Championships Day#
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WHISTLER, British Columbia, Canada—The United States finished fourth in the team relay event, the final competition of the 53rd FIL Luge World Championships. Earlier in the day, Jonny Gustafson was the top finishing United States sled in the men’s singles race. He was seventh.
Team relay
With a disqualification from Team Italy and a crash from the Latvian squad, the United States were in position to contend for the medals. Emily Sweeney (Lake Placid, N.Y.), yesterday's bronze medalist in the women’s singles competition, kicked off the U.S. effort and placed the team in the lead. The young doubles team of Marcus Mueller (Brookfield, Wisc.) and Ansel Haugsjaa (Framingham, Mass.) held the lead until the final corner of the track, at which point the duo faltered and fell back roughly one second. Gustafson (Massena, N.Y.) and the doubles team of Chevonne Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Sophia Kirkby (Lake Placid, N.Y.) clawed back to within an agonizingly close .313 seconds off the podium. The team’s time was 2:51.954.
The race was won by Germany in 2:50.361, with Austria second in 2:50.492. A jubilant, young Canadian team were third in 2:51.641.
Men’s singles
In the best World Championship result of his career, the 27-year-old Gustafson clocked a two-run combined time of 1:40.541.
"It was good, you know, it can always be better,” said Gustafson immediately after his race. “Both my runs, I know I had time in them, but I think that's my best World [Championship] result ever. Two pretty clean runs [and] we have team relay coming up next. So, I'm excited.”
Three-time Olympian Tucker West (Lake Placid, N.Y.) was 12th in 1:40.899.
Germany’s Max Langenhan was the race winner in 1:39.922. His teammate, Felix Loch, was second in 1:40.057. This was Loch’s 11th career World Championship medal, a record in the sport. Nico Gleirscher of Austria was third in 1:40.144.
Two more World Cup events remain in the 2024-25 season. Next weekend, the circuit travels to PyeongChang, South Korea. The World Cup finale will take place in Yanqing, China, February 22-23. The United States will send a reduced team to the Asian events, to include Forgan and Kirkby, Zack DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.) and Sean Hollander (Lake Placid, N.Y.), Ashley Farquharson (Park City, Utah), West, and Gustafson.
“We’re going to keep pushing for the next two weeks,” said Forgan, who holds third place in the overall women’s doubles World Cup standings with Kirkby.
The remaining two races and all previous competitions can be seen on the FIL YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel
