Following USA Bobsled & Skeleton's five-medal performance in the World Cup season opening races in Lake Placid, N.Y. last week, the tour next moves to Park City, Utah, for its second leg.
The full race schedule, with times listed in EST in parentheses, is below:
Friday, Nov. 17
12 p.m. (2 p.m.): Women's skeleton
3 p.m. (5 p.m.): Four-man bobsled race #1
6 p.m. (8 p.m.): Women's bobsled
Saturday, Nov. 18
12 p.m. (2 p.m.): Men's skeleton
4 p.m. (6 p.m.): Four-man bobsled race #2
Because last week's four-man race in Lake Placid was cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather and replaced with a second two-man competition, this week's races will feature two four-man events. Each American men's pilot won at least one medal last week, led by 23-year-old Codie Bascue (Whitehall, N.Y.), who took gold and bronze in the two races alongside Sam McGuffie (Cypress, Texas) and Carlo Valdes (Newport Beach, Calif.), respectively. McGuffie and Valdes will be in the back of Bascue's four-man sled along with active Special Forces Green Beret Nate Weber (Pueblo West, Colo.), who will see the first World Cup action of his career this weekend.
Two-time Olympian Nick Cunningham (Monterey, Calif.) turned in a silver medal performance with 2012 track Olympian Ryan Bailey (Portland, Ore.) last weekend after the pair posted some of the strongest start times of the competitions. Bailey, former professional track athlete Chris Kinney (Stockbridge, Ga.) and four-time national team member Sam Michener (Gresham, Ore.) will push for Cunningham in the two four-man competitions.
Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas), who has an Olympic gold medal as a push athlete, won his first World Cup medal in the pilot's seat last weekend, a bronze with former Brown University decathlete Evan Weinstock (Las Vegas, Nev.). Olsen and Weinstock also recorded strong start times in the two-man races, and will look to repeat the effort by teaming with two Olympic medalists in Steven Langton (Melrose, Mass.) and Christopher Fogt (Alpine, Utah).
Two-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor (Douglasville, Ga.) and Lauren Gibbs (Los Angeles, Calif.) broke the Lake Placid start record last week en route to a silver medal performance that led Team USA's results on the women's side. Gibbs will race this week with 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Jamie Greubel Poser (Newtown, Pa.), who missed a medal last week by just 0.01 seconds. Meyers Taylor will team with Summer and Winter Olympian Lolo Jones (Des Moines, Iowa), while Brittany Reinbolt (Searcy, Ark.) will pair with Aja Evans (Chicago, Ill.), who raced with Greubel Poser last week.
Led by 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Matt Antoine's (Prairie du Chien, Wisc.) eighth place finish last week, the American men's skeleton athletes will look for their first podium finish of the season this weekend. Antoine will be joined by two-time Olympian John Daly (Smithtown, N.Y.) and Greg West (Springfield, Mo.).
Katie Uhlaender (Breckenridge, Colo.) took ninth last week to lead the women's skeleton team, followed by Savannah Graybill (Denver, Pa.) in 11th and Kendall Wesenberg (Modesto, Calif.) tied for 14th. All three will look to improve on their results this week.
The North American Cup circuit also continues this week with bobsled racing in Calgary, Canada today through Friday, while the skeleton portion of the European Cup takes place in Winterberg, Germany on Friday and Saturday.
USA Bobsled & Skeleton, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. The USABS would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, Kampgrounds of America, Thorne, Boomerang Carnets, Classroom Champions, Aspen Institute's Project Play, Tesa Tape, Hudl Technique, Ferris Mfg. Corp, Stress Engineering, Machintek, deBotech, Carpenter and PVS International. For more information, please visit the USABS website at www.usabs.com.
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