West seventh in Sigulda World Cup; chaos in relay

United States does not finish chaotic team relay 

SIGULDA, Latvia—Tucker West placed seventh in the men’s World Cup competition, his best result of the season. While it was smooth sailing for men’s singles, less than half of the relay teams finished the race in a wild and unpredictable competition. The United States were among those teams who did not finish.  

Men’s Singles 

West (Lake Placid, N.Y.) seemed to find some of the speed he has been searching for thus far this season. His start, normally one of the fastest in the world, has been slightly hampered by shoulder issues. But West found that speed today, navigating the 16 corners of the Sigulda track with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 35.798 seconds.  

2022 Olympian Jonny Gustafson (Massena, N.Y.) had problems in curves 11 and 15, finishing in 26th place with a one run time of 49.161. Only the top 20 athletes advance to take a second run. Aidan Mueller (West Islip, N.Y.) was 28^th in 49.433.  

Austrian Nico Gleirscher won the race in 1:35.199. Kristers Aparjods of Latvia was second in 1:35.383, while Germany’s Max Langenhan was third with a time of 1:35.480.  

Team relay 

One of the wildest team relay competitions in the history of the event ended in a rather predictable manner: with Germany on top. It was the 50^th relay victory for the Germans. More teams failed to finish the race than complete it, including powerhouse nations like Latvia, Italy and the United States.  

The United States team featured Emily Sweeney (Lake Placid, N.Y.), the men’s doubles team of Zack DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.) - Sean Hollander (Lake Placid, N.Y.), West, and the women’s doubles team of Chevonne Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) - Sophia Kirkby (Lake Placid, N.Y.). Sweeney was first up with a solid run but had issues within 30 feet of the touch pad. Her hand narrowly missed the pad, and the team was disqualified. However, team leaders for the U.S protested an illegal start procedure issue which resulted in re-run. On the re-run, Sweeney was fastest of all the women’s singles sleds, but a mistake in curve 14 caused her to crash and not finish, resulting in a DNF for Team USA. 

The Latvian’s fate was almost identical to that of the United States, with a missed paddle, a re-run due to technical issues, followed by a crash on the re-run. The heartbreak for the heavily favored home team was palatable. Teams from Italy and Poland also had crashes and did not finish.  

The podium featured Germany on top, Austria in second and a jubilant Ukrainian team in third.  

Overall World Cup Standings 

Gustafson is ranked 11^th in the World Cup overall standings with 136, while West is 14^th with 118. Matt Greiner (Park City, Utah) is 27^th with 52 points and Mueller is 28^th with 50. Gleirscher leads with 331 points, Langenhan is second with 271 and Jonas Mueller of Austria is third with 259.  

In overall relay standings after two events, Austria and Germany are tied for the lead with 185 points each. Ukraine is third with 120. The United States sits in sixth with 55 points.  

World Cup racing continues January 11-12, 2025, in Altenberg, Germany, with the World Championships being held February 6-8, 2025, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. To live stream the races and view archived competitions, please visit the FIL’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel. The entire World Cup and World Championship season can be accessed from this portal.