Elana Meyers and Lolo Jones improved mightily in their second run, jumping from fifth to finish second, one-hundredth of a second behind, in a bobsled World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, on Sunday.
Germany’s Sandra Kiriasis won with a two-run time of 1 minute, 55.41 seconds, one day after her 39th birthday. Kiriasis, a two-time Olympic medalist, is the most decorated women’s bobsledder in the sport’s short history.
The Olympic bronze medalist Meyers followed in 1:55.42 and continued her streak of top-two finishes with her fifth straight this season to keep the World Cup overall lead. Meyers and Jones were fifth after the first run but had the fastest second run.
“I feel good with the outcome, but I don’t feel great about my performance,” Meyers said, according to the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. “I watched my runs after the race and realized that no one had perfect runs today, so it made me feel a little better. I’m still not happy with my runs, but I’m definitely satisfied with a medal.”
Their faster start run can be attributed to their start time, the part of the race where the push athlete has the biggest impact. They were 5.64 on their start in the first run and 5.52 in their second.
Meyers took the blame for the slow start in the first run.
“We like to live on the edge, keep everybody on the edge of their seats,” said Meyers, who teamed with Jones on USA-1 for the first time this season. “We had a little slip-up at the beginning of the first run. I didn’t run further enough, and she followed me. It caused us to drop some time, but we came back the second one.”
Another American led after the first run. Jamie Greubel was attempting to win her first World Cup race but fell to fourth with the top U.S. push athlete, Aja Evans.
The third U.S. sled -- Jazmine Fenlator and three-time Olympic sprinter Lauryn Williams -- was ninth.
Evans is expected to team with Meyers at the Sochi Olympics. It’s a bit up in the air for Olympic selection after that. Greubel’s normal push athlete, Katie Eberling, sat out Sunday’s race. Jones, Williams and 2010 Olympian Emily Azevedo are in the running, too.
The women’s bobsled World Cup continues in St. Moritz, Switzerland, next week. The Olympic Team will be announced following the World Cup stop in Igls, Austria, in two weeks.
“Lolo definitely showed her fight by dropping a few hundredths in the second heat,” Meyers said. “Coming back and doing that is impressive. I felt better about my drive, but I still have a lot of room to gain time on these tracks.”
Winterberg Two-Woman
1. Sandra Kiriasis/Franziska Fritz (GER) 1:55.41
2. Elana Meyers/Lolo Jones (USA) 1:55.42
3. Anja Schneiderheinze/Stephanie Schneider (GER) 1:55.48
4. Jamie Greubel/Aja Evans (USA) 1:55.52
9. Jazmine Fenlator/Lauryn Williams (USA) 1:56.09
