Spectator Viewing Just Feet Away from the World’s Best Bobsled and Skeleton Athletes
Tickets Available Here
The New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) announces that Mt Van Hoevenberg will welcome athletes from across the globe when it hosts the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s (IBSF) World Cup Bobsled and Skeleton this Friday, December 16 through Sunday, December 18, 2022.
What: This international competition features the world’s best athletes in both bobsled and skeleton. It is the third stop of the 2022-2023 IBSF World Cup series, which will culminate with the World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Jan. 28-Feb. 5, 2023. This also marks the return of World Cup bobsled and skeleton competition to the historic Mt Van Hoevenberg track, which last hosted the event in December of 2019.
Medals will be awarded in the following disciplines: men’s and women’s skeleton, 2-woman bobsleigh, 2-man bobsleigh, 4-man bobsleigh, and women’s monobob. Each sled will take two runs down the track, with the best combined time determining their finishing positions.
When: This three-day event offers a full slate of heats in all categories:
Friday, Dec 16 | Skeleton | One-Mile Track
10:30 am | Men’s Skeleton Race: Heat One
12:15 | Men’s Skeleton Race: Heat Two
1:40 pm | Women’s Skeleton awards 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
2:30 pm | Women’s Skeleton Race: Heat One
4:00 pm | Women’s Skeleton Race: Heat Two
5:30 pm | Men’s Skeleton Awards 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
Saturday, Dec 17 | Bobsleigh | One-Mile Track
10:00 am | 2-Man Bobsleigh Race: Heat One
11:20 am | 2-Man Bobsleigh Race: Heat Two
12:40 pm | Awards Ceremony 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
2:30 pm | Women’s Monobob Race: Heat One
4:00 pm | Women’s Monobob Race: Heat Two
5:00 pm | Awards Ceremony 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
Sunday, Dec 18 | Bobsleigh | One-Mile Track
10:00 am | 2-Woman Bobsleigh Race: Heat One
11:30 am | 2-Woman Bobsleigh Race: Heat Two
12:30 pm | Awards Ceremony 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
2:30 pm | 4-Man Bobsleigh Race: Heat One
4:00 pm | 4-Man Bobsleigh Race: Heat Two
5:10 pm | Awards Ceremony 30 minutes after the last run | Awards Plaza at Mountain Pass Lodge
Where: Mt Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, site of the first-ever bobsled track built in North America and host of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games, is now home to a modern combined track considered among the world’s most technically challenging tracks for bobsled and other sliding sports.
Who: 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 on their way to qualifying for the World Championships and eventually the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.
The United States contingent is led by three-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries, who made history in Beijing in February by winning the gold medal in the inaugural women’s monobob Olympic competition. The gold also made her the first woman in history to win Olympic gold medals for two different nations – the United States and Canada.
In her first full competitive year on the U.S. team, Humphries comes into the Lake Placid races as the top-ranked monobob athlete after picking up her first victory of the World Cup season on Dec. 2 in Park City, Utah. She will race in this week’s 2-woman event with 2022 Olympic teammate Kaysha Love, who spent the early part of this season trying her hand as a driver. The duo will team up for the first time since the Olympics in February.
Nicole Vogt will pilot the USA2 2-woman sled and also compete in monobob, which is an individual sport. Fellow American Riley Compton, an active-duty Marine in her first year on the United States national team, will also compete in both disciplines in the USA3 sled.
On the men’s side, Frank Del Duca and Geoff Gadbois will pilot the Team USA 2- and 4-man sleds. Del Duca is a Saranac Lake resident and a member of the US Army’s World Class Athlete program, while Gadbois is a Vermont native who grew up in the junior bobsled program at Mt Van Hoevenberg. Del Duca recorded his career-best World Cup result as a pilot with a seventh-place finish on Dec. 3 in Park City. He was joined by Adrian Adams, Manteo Mitchell, and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor. Adams and Mitchell are coming fresh off their 4-man bobsleigh win at the IBSF World Push Championships.
The American men will have their hands full in Lake Placid going up against World Cup overall points leader Francesco Friedrich of Germany. Considered one of the best bobsleigh pilots in the history of the sport, Friedrich swept the 2- and 4-man gold medals at both the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and the 2022 Beijing Games. He has racked up 13 World Championships titles in the two disciplines between 2017 and 2021.
The U.S. women’s skeleton team is led by Olympians Kelly Curtis, an Airman 1st Class in the Air Force, and Kendall Wesenberg. Teammate Hallie Clark, an 18-year-old who came to Team USA from the Canadian team, made a splash in her first career World Cup race on Nov. 24 by capturing silver at the Whistler Sliding Center in British Columbia. Clark currently sits fourth in the overall rankings, trailing Hannah Neise of Germany, Mirela Rahneva of Canada, and Tina Hermann of Germany.
Austin Florian and Olympian Andrew Blaser will represent Team USA in men’s skeleton. Florian, a two-time All-American alpine ski racer during his time at Clarkson University, is coming off a career-best sixth-place finish at the World Cup skeleton event in Park City. Marcus Wyatt of Great Britain leads the overall men’s skeleton rankings with 425 points, followed by South Korea’s Jung Seunggi at 420 points and Germany’s Christopher Grotheer with 409.
Why: The event is open to the media and public. Spectator viewing just feet away from the high-speed athletes is available at numerous locations along the one-mile length of the track. In recent years, ORDA has invested heavily in revitalizing Mt Van Hoevenberg’s facilities as part of a series of projects to transform Lake Placid’s Olympic venues, elevate guests’ experiences, and modernize the sites for many more years of sport and recreational use. This is one of only two bobsled tracks in the United States, making spectating this event a unique opportunity for the public to be up close to the world’s best athletes in sliding sports and witness competitors reaching speeds of 90 mph or more.
Tickets and Additional Information: Tickets are available inside the Mountain Pass Lodge or online in advance. For more information, visit mtvanhoevenberg.com.