Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby won the bronze in the women’s doubles competition in Innsbruck, Austria — the home of the 1964 and 1976 Olympic Winter Games. Ashley Farquharson finished fourth in the women’s singles race and holds third in the overall World Cup standings.

The USA Luge men’s doubles team of Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike secured their best-ever result, placing eighth. This result cements their first appearance in the relay for the duo who previously raced with different partners over the past seasons.

The team’s achievements come after a challenging week, with the loss of USA Luge coach, marketing manager and humanitarian Dmitry Feld this past Wednesday.

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Women’s doubles

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Forgan, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and Kirkby, of Ray Brook, made a series of small mistakes in their first run, ranking sixth. The duo came back with the second fastest time in the next heat, securing a bronze medal in one minute 20.384 seconds. Forgan and Kirkby, who set the two fastest start times of the competition, earned their second bronze medal of the season.

“We got third in our race (Saturday) here in Igls, which is very exciting,” Forgan said. “We started off with a few problems in our first run, but we managed to clean it up and sort of climb back up onto the podium.”

“Like Chevonne said, here in Igls, Austria, we just got third,” Kirkby said. “(I’m) very happy because we were in sixth after the first run, but we pulled a solid second run and we were able to climb up into third place.”

Teammates Maya Chan of Chicago, Illinois, and Reannyn Weiler of Whitesboro placed sixth with a time of 1:20.553. They have placed sixth in every competition this season.

Germany’s Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal secured their third gold medal of the season with a time of 1:20.178. Italy’s Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer placed second in 1:20.192.

Degenhardt and Rosenthal took the overall World Cup lead with 410 points. Voetter and Oberhofer are in second with 370, and Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Kipp move from first to third with 364. Forgan and Kirkby are fifth with 330 while teammates Chan and Weiler are sixth with 250.

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Men’s doubles

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After winning the qualifying race to kick off the weekend in Igls on Friday, Kellogg, of Chesterfield, Massachusetts, and Ike, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, had consistent runs in both heats Saturday, finishing the day with a best-ever result in eighth with a time of 1:19.389.

“I’m proud of our runs (on Saturday),” Kellogg said. “We had some mistakes to clean up for tomorrow, but super excited to be in relay.”

Igls was not kind to the 2023 Lake Placid World Cup gold medalists Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander. The duo struggled in both runs at the start, and their problems continued along the way with skids and bumps. DiGregorio, of Medway, Massachusetts, and Hollander, of Lake Placid, placed 23rd in 1:20.892.

Men’s doubles has proven to be the most unpredictable of all disciplines thus far in the 2023-24 World Cup campaign, with five different winners representing four nations. Austria’s Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl secured a new track record on their first run with a time of 39.344. Despite a slow start, the duo found speed at the bottom of the track and won the gold with a time of 1:18.690. Their teammates and 2023 Winterberg World Cup gold medalists Thomas Gatt and Martin Schoepf were in the lead toward the end of their second heat but experienced a crash going into the finish.

Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume placed second in 1:18.862 and Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt were third in 1:18.986.

Steu and Kindl took the lead in the World Cup overall points with 401, with Wendl and Arlt bumping to second with 380 points. In third is Bots and Plume with 350. DiGregorio and Hollander remain in sixth with 240 and Kellogg and Ike stay in 13th with 148.

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Women’s singles

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USA Luge women took three top 10 finishes, the most of any country in the top 10.

2022 Olympian Farquharson, of Park City, Utah led the U.S. women finishing in fourth place in 1:19.477. Farquharson continues to race strong this season and remains the third-ranked woman in the world.

“I’m really happy with the speed shown (Saturday),” Farquharson said. “(There were) some small mistakes in the first run, but I was able to clean it up in run two.”

Farquharson’s second heat time of 39.657 ranked third.

Three-time Olympian Emily Sweeney of Lake Placid, who won the silver medal on this track in 2022, placed sixth with a time of 1:19.602. Teammate and 2023 Lake Placid World Cup bronze medalist Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, placed just behind Sweeney in seventh in 1:19.678. Emma Erickson of Park City, Utah was 22nd with a time of 1:20.453.

Just .024 seconds separated the top two spots on the podium. Austria’s Madeleine Egle, who owns the track record, won her third gold medal of the season, with a time of 1:19.200. Germany’s Julia Taubitz won silver in 1:19.224, with Taubitz’s teammate Anna Berreiter taking the bronze in 1:19.439.

Taubitz remains the World Cup overall leader with 455 points followed by Egle with 415. Farquharson is third with 301 and Sweeney in fifth with 264, while Britcher is in seventh with 233 and Erickson moves up to 21st place from 26th with 57.

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Men’s singles

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The 10-race winning streak for Germany’s Max Langenhan ended after Austria took the top two spots on the podium at their home track. The gold medal went to Jonas Mueller with a time of 1:38.655 and the silver to Nico Gleirscher in 1:38.981. Mueller also set a new track record on his first run with a time of 49.288. Langenhan took bronze in 1:39.083.

Gustafson placed ninth, with a time of 1:39.807, followed by teammate Tucker West of Ridgefield, Connecticut, who landed in 14th with a time of 1:40.209. Gustafson has finished in the top 10 at every event this season. As usual, West was among the fastest starters in the field, with the fourth and second-quickest start times of the competition, respectively.

Junior National Team member Matt Greiner of Park City, Utah, placed 27th with a time of 1:41.284, while Hunter Harris of East Fairfield, Vermont, followed in 28th in 1:41.349.

Langenhan remains the overall World Cup leader with 470 points, followed by Mueller with 380 in second place and Gleirscher in third with 331. Gustafson is in ninth with 208, West in 10th with 190, Harris in 18th with 87 and Greiner in 30th with 37.

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Team relay

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Farquharson, who was the first sled to hit the ice for the United States, continued her consistently strong sliding this season. After passing the traditional finish line, she hit the paddle hanging over the track, opening the gates for Kellogg and Ike in their first relay.

The duo qualified to compete in the event for the U.S. with a career-best result the previous day. Gustafson continued the work with a mistake-free run, and while the women’s doubles team of Forgan and Kirkby had the strongest start, but the team effort fell short of the podium by just .187 seconds. Team USA placed fourth with a time of 2:52.838.

The Austrian relay team, led by Madeleine Egle, the doubles duo of Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl, Jonas Mueller and the women’s doubles team of Selina Egle and Lara Kipp, won the race in front of a home crowd, crossing the finish in 2:52.190. The time also secured a track record.

The German relay team, led by Julia Taubitz, the duo of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, Max Langenhan and the duo of Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal, took silver in 2:52.476. Verena Hofer, the duo of Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner, Dominik Fischnaller and the duo of Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer gave Team Italy the bronze with a time of 2:52.651.

Team Germany is the overall World Cup leader with 285 points, and Team Austria is in second place with 270. Team USA is third with 200 points.