LILLEHAMMER, Norway — Two-time Olympian Summer Britcher showed that the Hunderfossen track in Lillehammer is her happy place as she used a brilliant second run to advance from fourth to the silver medal at the World Cup luge event last weekend. The result also brought her up to fourth in the overall World Cup rankings.

Brittney Arndt rebounded from last week with a ninth-place performance, and Ashley Farquharson was 17th. Emily Sweeney did not compete. She withdrew from last week’s second run with a neck issue and did not train in Lillehammer.

The lone United States World Cup doubles team of Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman, with five Olympic berths between them, were out of action Saturday, Jan. 18 as Mazdzer incurred a neck problem on Jan. 15 and will gauge his return on a daily basis. Nevertheless, there was plenty of drama and surprises as Germany, with three sleds in the field, were shut out of the medals for the first time in nine years, and Russians grabbed two of the three medals.

  Mazdzer, of Saranac Lake, and Terdiman, of Pennsylvania, have been selected to compete at the World Championships in Sochi next month.

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WOMEN

Britcher, of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, collected her third World Cup silver medal of the season in un-Lillehammer conditions for mid-January. Instead of arctic cold, the World Cup encountered mild temps all week. Race conditions were foggy with the mercury stuck in the low to mid-30s. Britcher admitted that, usually, the warmth doesn’t agree with her.

“I was a little disappointed in the beginning of the week to see the forecast,” she said. “I typically don’t perform as well in warmer weather, so I just had to re-focus and try to do my best out there. I’m pretty happy with how things went.”

Britcher opened the event with a fourth place run that saw a few bobbles, but left her within striking distance to the podium. Interestingly, her second run start was only 14th best in the heat, but then she kicked in the after-burners and gobbled up time down the 1994 Olympic course, posting the second fastest run time behind winner Tatyana Ivanova of Russia.

Britcher won twice two seasons ago when the tour last visited Lillehammer. As to her success here?

“It comes down to a few things,” stated the 2014 and 2018 member of Team USA. “One of them is that I just love to slide here. I love this track, I love where we stay. It’s beautiful. And the other thing is the past four years, I think, I’ve trained from the top of the track. Three of those years I raced in the (fall) fun race, the Lillehammer Cup in the men’s category from the top of the track, so it kind of takes some stress off. Get some more experience, then go down and compete at a lower start height. It’s my opinion that we should all be racing from the top, but I’ll take advantage of the experience as long as there is that discrepancy.”

Ivanova, third at the mid-point, overtook leader Julia Taubitz, of Germany, in the final leg for her fourth gold medal of the season. The Russian clocked a combined 1 minute, 35.482 seconds to hold off Britcher by 0.11 of a second. Taubitz wound up third, 0.14 from the winner.

The American, who finished third in the World Cup standings the past two years, is now positioned for a comparable finish with five individual competitions remaining. Ivanova, with five medals in seven starts, holds the overall World Cup lead with 582 points. She is followed by Taubitz with 550 and another Russian, Victoriia Demchenko, third with 392 after collecting fourth place points here. Britcher is next with 370 points and might be ranked higher had she qualified for the Whistler sprint cup.

Teammates Brittney Arndt and Ashley Farquharson took ninth and 17th, respectively, as the Park City, Utah residents seek berths in the World Championships. Currently, they are partially qualified, while Britcher and Sweeney have met the criteria with their World Cup medals. Sweeney has missed the past two singles events. The Lake Placid slider scored a silver medal at home and is ranked sixth on tour.

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DOUBLES

Two Russian sleds boat raced right passed Germany en route to gold and bronze medals, with Austria occupying the silver medal. It was the first time in 10 years that no German sled has appeared on the World Cup podium. However, they will depart Lillehammer Monday still in possession of the top two places in the overall doubles World Cup.

It was nothing but aces for Alexsandr Denisev and Vladislav Antonov, who registered the best times of each leg. Their total of 1:35.585 bested Austria’s Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller, who were runners-up in each heat. They clocked 1:35.685. Russians Vladislav Yuzhakov and Iurii Prokhorov finished third, 0.17 from their compatriots.

Germany had very pedestrian finishes of 7-8-10, led by four-time Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt. They are second in the standings with 517 points to Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken who took eighth. It was their first time out of the top two this winter in seven events. Eggert and Benecken have a World Cup-leading 597 points. Steu and Koller are third with 486. Russia occupies fourth, sixth and eight places on the campaign. Mazdzer/Terdiman, with four finishes to date, are 18th ranked.