Mirela Rahneva of Ottawa, Ontario won a World Cup silver medal in women’s skeleton in Winterberg, Germany on Friday. She had a time of 1:57.24 to win her 13th World Cup medal of her career.
Rahneva was six one-hundredths of a second back of Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands. Bos had a winning time of 1:57.18. Hannah Neise of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 1:57.34. Rahneva reached the podium by 0.16 seconds. Tina Hermann of Germany was in fourth place with a time of 1:57.40.
A major reason for Rahneva’s second place finish was her fantastic first run. She had a time of 58.6 seconds, which was the fastest in the competition. The second fastest skeleton athlete in the first run was Bos, who had a time of 58.68 seconds.
After four races in the 2022-23 women’s skeleton World Cup standings, Rahneva is in third place with 763 points. Hermann leads with 803 points and Neise is second with 777 points. This was Rahneva’s second podium finish of the 2022-23 women’s skeleton season, as she won the gold medal in Park City, Utah on December 1.
In her career, Rahneva now has four gold medals, four silver medals, and five bronze medals. She is considered a medal contender for Canada at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
