World championship bronze medalist Emily Sweeney placed first in the Nations Cup luge race Friday in Innsbruck, Austria, qualifying with ease for the first World Cup event of the season.
Twelve women, including fellow American Summer Britcher, were seeded directly into the World Cup race. Sweeney, Brittney Arndt and Ashley Farquharson all qualified from the Nations Cup race. Britcher has finished third in the overall World Cup standings for two straight years and is a contender in a wide-open year with seven-time defending champion Natalie Geisenberger taking a year off while pregnant.
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In the men’s competition, Jonny Gustafson and Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer finished third and fifth in the Nations Cup race to advance. Tucker West claimed the second-to-last qualifying spot to get all three U.S. sliders in Sunday’s World Cup race.
Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman qualified for the doubles competition, ensuring all eight U.S. sliders will see the weekend races.
OlympicChannel.com will have live streaming this weekend (all times ET):
- Women: Saturday, 4:15 a.m. and 5:40 a.m.
- Doubles: Saturday, 7:05 a.m. and 8:25 a.m.
- Men: Sunday, 4 a.m. and 5:35 a.m.
- Team relay: Sunday, 7:40 a.m.
Highlights will be on television at the following times:
- Saturday: Olympic Channel, 5:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Olympic Channel, 5:30 p.m.
- Sunday: NBCSN, 4:30 p.m.
Next weekend, the World Cup series heads to Lake Placid, N.Y.
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