PARK CITY, UTAH – Team USA athletes made some noise on home soil Thursday at the women’s skeleton IBSF World Cup, where 2022 Olympian Kelly Curtis and rookie Hallie Clarke each finished inside the top 10.
The 33-year-old Curtis, who hails from Princeton, N.J., placed fifth to mark a career-best World Cup result after finishing with a time of 1:38.70 in Park City, site of the 2002 Olympics. The 18-year-old Clarke, in just her second career World Cup start, followed up her podium performance last week in Whistler where she placed second with a ninth-place finish in Utah after a time of 1:39.31.
“My best finish ever in a World Cup, my first World Cup in the U.S., PR (personal record) pushes, PR downtime, so overall it was a great day, great week of training,” said Curtis, who finished 21st at the Beijing Games in February and kicked off the World Cup season with an 11th place in Whistler. “I think all the U.S. performed really well on our home track.”
Canada’s Mirela Rahneva earned the title and her fourth career World Cup win on Thursday, setting a new track record on her first run and finishing with a time of 1:38.42. Rahneva’s first run of 49.12 bested the track record set by American and 2014 Olympic silver medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace in December 2013 by 0.62. She also broke a win drought stretching back to February 2019 in Calgary, where Rahneva won her second of two World Cup races that season. Germany’s Tina Hermann, the reigning world champion and winner of the 2016 Park City World Cup, finished 0.10 back to place second, while Great Britain’s Laura Deas was third (0.13 seconds back), marking her first World Cup podium since February 2019.
The top-five finish was a welcome sign of progress for Curtis, who was an heptathlete in college and competed in bobsled in graduate school. She took up skeleton in 2016 at age 27 and made her World Cup debut in January 2021, three days before her 32nd birthday. She’s recorded four career top-10 World Cup finishes, with her previous best being a sixth in the final race of the 2021-22 season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, which clinched her Olympic spot. In February, she became the first Black athlete to represent the U.S. in the sport of skeleton.
“I think Kelly was a little disappointed with how last week went -- she knew she had more in the tank and could have done better,” said USA Skeleton head coach Matt Antoine, who won Olympic bronze for the U.S. in 2014 and took over as coach in October. “And so we went into this week approaching it as it’s a home track. You know, we don’t have to focus so much on the learning, it’s just more about getting comfortable and confident sliding again. She well there in training and then it played out really well, today, super happy. Really excited for her result.”
While Curtis described making the U.S. Olympic team as “the cherry on top” of a dream rookie season, she finds herself just as surprised at her sophomore campaign – something she wasn’t sure she’d be able to do while serving in the Air Force as a knowledge management technician with the 31st Communications Squadron at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
“Thankfully my leadership there is understanding of what I’m doing,” said Curtis, who was named 2002 Air Force Female Athlete of the Year in July. “They’re able to let me be here on permissive leave. I thought I would have to be on duty active duty this whole season, so this year was also a little bit of a surprise, that I am able to come out and compete.”
Also competing for the U.S. on Thursday was 2018 Olympian Kendall Wesenberg, who placed 12th with a time of 1.39.68.
Reigning Olympic champion Hannah Neise of Germany followed up her career-first World Cup win last week in Whistler by finishing sixth on Thursday, maintaining her overall World Cup lead with 401 points, while Rahneva (393 points) moved into second in the standings.
The IBSF World Cup continues from Park City on Friday with the women’s monobob – which is making its debut as a World Cup discipline this season – and concludes Saturday with the two-woman bobsleigh.
