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Sigulda (RWH): Sigulda in Latvia will be the fourth stop in the 2024/25 IBSF World Cup season. On the agenda: women’s skeleton, men’s skeleton, 2-woman bobsleigh, women’s monobob and two races in the 2-man bobsleigh. As is always the case, there will be a break for the 4-man bobsleigh event while the tour is in Sigulda. That’s because the 1,200-metre-long track is not suitable for the larger sleds. Furthermore, the track’s starting line above the Gauja River is located in a five-storey tower and can only be accessed via a lift.
Up-to-date start times (local time at the track and the user’s local time) are listed on the IBSF website.
 
World Cup preview for the skeleton
The Olympic and reigning World Champions Hannah Neise (GER) and Christopher Grotheer (GER) will be arriving in Sigulda as the overall World Cup leaders.
In the women’s skeleton, Hannah Neise secured silver in the European Championships on the Latvian track back in February 2024 and also finished third in the IBSF World Cup race there. The 24-year-old owes her position at the top of the World Cup standings to her consistently good results. After finishing sixth in the opening race, she went on to finish on the podium in the next three races. However, a victory has eluded her so far this pre-Olympic season. Four different athletes from three different countries have taken the top spot over the first half of the World Cup season: The UK’s Amelia Coltman and Freya Tarbit, Dan Zhao of China and Belgium’s Kim Meylemans. And all four of the winners share a common trait: each of them celebrated their first ever World Cup victory.
So far this 2024/25 World Cup season, the leader Christopher Grotheer has remained unbeaten in the men’s skeleton. If he succeeds in taking the top spot in Sigulda, it would be a first for him: Across all of his appearances in Latvia, he has only ever finished on the podium once to date, securing third place in February 2023. At the four World Cup events so far this season, Team GB have impressed with a total of seven podium finishes shared between the defending World Cup title holder Matt Weston and his team-mate Marcus Wyatt, who was crowned European Champion in Sigulda in February 2024. The two British athletes, who are currently second and third in the overall World Cup standings, have finished on the podium at the last three races in Sigulda.
And the Latvian home team? Latvia currently has one World Cup starting place in both the men’s skeleton and women’s skeleton and have registered two up-and-coming athletes for their home World Cup event: The U20 World Champion Davis Valdovskis is 18 and finished fourth at the 2024 Youth Winter Olympic Games in Gangwon (KOR). His team-mate Marta Andzane, who finished fifth at the YOG, secured a bronze medal in the U20 World Championships last winter and also celebrated a fourth-place finish at the opening IBSF European Cup race in Winterberg (GER).
Martins Dukurs (LAT), who with six World Championship titles and eleven overall World Cup victories is the most successful male skeleton athlete of all time, will also be back at his home track in Sigulda – albeit in his role as a coach for the British team, putting them high on list of favourites.
 
World Cup preview for the 2-man bobsleigh
The Olympic and World Champion Francesco Friedrich (GER) has got off to a flying start this 2024/25 IBSF World Cup season. At the first 2-man bobsleigh World Cup of the pre-Olympic season, the defending World Cup title holder finished first on his home track in Altenberg (GER) at what was his 100th World Cup race in the 2-man bobsleigh. The event in Sigulda could see Francesco Friedrich set yet another record: With 48 World Cup victories in the 2-man event and two 2-man bobsleigh races scheduled for this World Cup weekend, the 50-win mark is within tangible reach. However, one of Friedrich’s team-mates took the top spot in Sigulda in the 2023/24 season, when Adam Ammour won both the World Cup race and European Championship gold there. One year earlier, in February 2023, the victory went to Johannes Lochner (GER).
Jekabs Kalenda will be competing for the home team in Sigulda; he finished eighth at the European Championships in Sigulda last winter. Emils Cipulis, who won World Championship silver in the 4-man bobsleigh in 2023 and finished second in last season’s overall World Cup, retired from the sport at the end of last season.
 
World Cup preview for the women’s monobob and 2-woman bobsleigh
Germany’s female pilots were almost impossible to beat in both the monobob and 2-woman bobsleigh events at the season opener to the IBSF World Cup: Competing on her home track in Altenberg, Laura Nolte won in both disciplines, finishing ahead of Lisa Buckwitz. Kim Kalicki finished third in the 2-woman bobsleigh, while third place in the monobob went to Andreea Grecu (ROU). And the Romanian athlete may have an advantage in Sigulda, too, if you look at her past results: In both 2020 and 2024, Andreea Grecu won European Championship silver in the 2-woman bobsleigh on the Latvian track. The female athletes and teams from the USA and Switzerland could also be in with a chance of success in Sigulda after only just missing out on the podium in Altenberg. Melanie Hasler, who finished fourth in the 2-woman bobsleigh in Altenberg, won European Championship bronze in Sigulda last winter and finished third in the World Cup race. Despite her long career, the Olympic and World Champion Kaillie Humphries (USA) has only competed in a single weekend of racing in Sigulda – though it couldn’t have gone much better: in February 2024, she won the monobob race and finished third in the 2-woman bobsleigh. Her US team-mate Elana Meyers Taylor has also taken the top spot on the podium in Sigulda, winning the 2-woman bobsleigh World Cup race in February 2022.
It has been a long time since Latvia entered a female pilot into the bobsleigh World Cup. Their last female athlete to compete was Aiva Aparjode, who raced in the 2-woman bobsleigh in the 2007/2008 season. In the 2018/2019 season, Aiga Grabuste, Katrina Sirma and Lina Muze all competed in the women’s monobob World Series, though this was before the discipline achieved World Cup status. Amelia Kotane, who is just 15 and finished fourth in the 2024 Youth Winter Olympic Games, is currently competing in the IBSF North American Cup. In her first three races, she finished sixth, eighth and eighth. 
 
On the sidelines
Since winning gold at the 2024 YOG in PyeongChang, the Youth Olympic Champion Emils Indriksons (LAT) has now started the skeleton season in the IBSF European Cup. At the season opener in Winterberg (GER), the 18-year-old celebrated his best result in the racing series to date by finishing eighth.
Ashleigh Werner (AUS) celebrated her IBSF World Cup comeback in Altenberg (GER). After leaving sliding sports in January 2022 for an almost three-year break, the 32-year-old is now back – though not in her former role as a bobsleigh pilot but as a brakewoman for Sarah Blizzard in the 2-woman bobsleigh. In the interim, Ashleigh Werner was still involved in sports, most recently playing rugby for the Brisbane Broncos, who are currently top of the league. Her return to bobsleigh is the result of a foot injury, which did not heal in time for the rugby season, as Ashleigh Werner explained on her Instagram: “As I worked through the rehab […] I knew I’d need something to push for to keep the motivation fresh and strong. [I’m] looking forward to the challenge!” In Altenberg, the pairing of Blizzard/Werner finished 17th.
The bobsleigh pilot Melissa Lotholz (CAN) made her debut in the IBSF World Cup at the opening bobsleigh event of the 2024/25 season.  After taking a season off after the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the 32-year-old started as a pilot in the North American Cup in the 2023/2024 season – and won the overall standings in the series for both the monobob and 2-woman bobsleigh. The Canadian began her bobsleigh career in 2014, when she was a brakewoman. With Kaillie Humphries as her pilot, Melissa Lotholz won titles including World Championship silver in 2016 and 2017 and also finished on the World Cup podium seven times. Melissa Lotholz first switched to the pilot’s seat in the 2019/2020 season.
Jonathan Lourimi / Mohamed Mounes Laabidi (TUN) went down in sporting history at the North American Cup event in Lake Placid (USA). On 3 December 2024, the up-and-coming athletes, who are just 18 and 21, became the first ever Tunisian team to compete in an IBSF race in the 2-man bobsleigh. In January 2024, Jonathan Lourimi already secured himself a place in the sport’s history books when he and his female team-mates Beya Mokrani and Sophie Ghorbal attended the 2024 Youth Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, becoming his country’s first ever representatives at a Winter Games – and by taking silver in the monobob, he also took home his country’s first medal, too. Tunisia’s national association has been a member of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation IBSF since 2023.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the case of Debora Annen. The 21-year-old from Switzerland, who finished sixth in the monobob World Cup race in Altenberg, was born into a talented bobsledding family. The father of the Junior World Champion in monobob and the runner-up in the U23 World Championships for the 2-woman bobsleigh was a successful bobsleigh pilot himself. Martin Annen (49) won three Olympic bronze medals (2002 and 2006 in the 2-man bobsleigh, and 2006 in the 4-man bobsleigh) and also won the 2006 European Championship title in the 4-man bobsleigh. The Swiss athlete also celebrated two overall victories in the World Cup (2-man bobsleigh and combined standings). His daughter Debora, who made it onto Switzerland’s junior handball team before an injury brought her handball journey to an end, spends the summers working in her parents’ restaurant.
Photos: IBSF, Viesturs Lacis + Laura Lakovica
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation is the international organization that administers the sports of bobsleigh and skeleton.

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