Emily Sweeney took the bronze medal in the women’s World Championship luge competition. (Provided photo — FIL/Michael Kristen)

WHISTLER, British Columbia, Canada — Emily Sweeney took the bronze medal in the women’s World Championship luge competition. It was her second medal of the weekend and third World Championship medal of her career.

In women’s doubles, Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby set a start record and finished fifth. The men’s doubles team of Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa were the top U.S. sled in seventh.

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.

–

Women’s singles

–

Coming off the heels of a silver medal in yesterday’s mixed event, Sweeney (Lake Placid) established herself as a favorite going into today’s race. True to form, she took the lead in the first heat of the race. A slightly slower second start saw her drop to the bronze medal position in the second heat. She was .002 seconds from the silver medal and .043 from gold.

The two-time Olympian won her first World Championship bronze medal in February 2019, almost one year after breaking her neck and back in a crash at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

“Obviously, when you’re in first after the first run, you want to see that ‘1’ when you cross the finish line, but I’m really happy to walk away with a medal,” Sweeney said. “Whistler has great memories for me. This is where I had a medal in my first race back after breaking my neck and my back. So, I have so many good memories here, and this is just adding to it.”

Julia Taubitz of Germany won in 1:17.206, with teammate Merle Fraebel second in 1:17.247. Sweeney’s time was 1:17.249.

2022 Olympian Ashley Farquharson (Park City, Utah) notched her best-ever World Championship finish, sixth place, in 1:17.353.

Three-time Olympian Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) was tenth in 1:17.446.

Emma Erickson (Park City, Utah) was 22nd in 39.198. Only the top 20 sleds advance to the second heat.

–

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) 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.

–

Women’s doubles

–

Two-time World Championship medalists Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Kirkby (Lake Placid, N.Y.) set a start record in their second heat. Minor mistakes on a track that demands perfection cost them a spot on the podium. Their two-run combined time was 1:17.968.

“We had a few small mistakes in the first run but fixed it for a clean second run and a start record,” said Forgan. “So, we’re pretty happy with our fifth place, but we’re definitely pushing for more.”

“As Chevonne said, very excited,” added Kirkby. “We now hold a start record here in Whistler. We can’t do it without our sponsors: Norton, Dow, Team Worldwide, U.S. Venture, White Castle and Karbon.”

The rookie doubles team of Maya Chan (Chicago, Ill.) and Sophia Gordon (Sussex, Wisc.) crashed and did not finish the race.

Selina Egle and Lara Kipp of Austria were the winners in 1:17.724. Germany’s Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal were second in 1:17.753, with their teammates Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina third in 1:17.784.

–

Men’s doubles

–

Mueller (Brookfield, Wisc.) and Haugsjaa (Framingham, Mass.) were the youngest in today’s field. In fact, they were the only team to qualify for the U23 World Championship, held as a race within the World Championship format. The duo, 2024 Junior World Champions, placed seventh in 1:16.856.

“I’m super happy with two runs down the track, [with] very little mistakes,” said Mueller. “And yeah, couldn’t be more happy for [the performance over] the last year.”

“We had some interesting and definitely challenging training leading up to this race,” added Haugsjaa. “We had a pretty rough [mixed event] race yesterday. [We’re] just really trying to reset [our minds], do what we know we can do, and come into this race as freshly as possible. I think we did a pretty good job. So just a couple things to clean up for tomorrow [in the team relay] and we’ll be golden.”

2022 Olympians Zack DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.) and Sean Hollander (Lake Placid, placed tenth in 1:17.054.

Germany’s Hannes Orlamuender and Paul Gubitz won their first World Championship title in 1:16.538. Latvians Martins Bots and Roberts Plume moved from fourth to the silver medal position with a strong second heat. Their time was 1:16.640. Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany won their 11th World Championship medal, a bronze, in 1:16.671.

–

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), 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) and the doubles team of Chevonne Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Sophia Kirkby (Lake Placid) 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.

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,, 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.