Misplaced Pages

2009 World Championships
Location	Lake Placid, New York
Dates	February 20-March 1
← Altenberg 2008Königssee 2011 →

The FIBT World Championships 2009, officially known as the Bauhaus FIBT Bobsleigh & Skeleton World Championships, February 20 to March 1, 2009, at the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in Lake Placid, New York, for the ninth time, doing so previously in 1949, 1961, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1997 (skeleton), and 2003 (men's bobsleigh). Lake Placid was chosen 25–11 over Igls, Austria.

Event preparations

Local schools were involved in a "Scholastic Sliding Challenge" (SSC) as part of the FIL World Luge Championships that was held in early February 2009. This program was developed at the 2007 World Luge Championships in Igls, then carried over to last year's World Luge Championships in Oberhof, Germany. 22 schools participated in the Lake Placid area that involved over 4000 students. The track was iced down on October 6, 2008, the earliest it has ever been iced in preparation for both the FIBT and FIL championships. Local media coverage was provided by WSLP-FM 93.3 in neighboring Saranac Lake. Online coverage in the United States was provided by Universal Sports.

World Cup champions prior to the championships

As of February 15, 2009, the top three final World Cup positions were as follows (note: in bobsleigh, only the driver is shown):

Discipline	Leader	Second	Third
Bobsleigh men's combined	Russia - Alexandre Zoubkov	Switzerland - Beat Hefti	Germany - André Lange
Bobsleigh two-man	Switzerland - Beat Hefti	Germany - Thomas Florschütz	Germany - André Lange
Bobsleigh four-man	Russia - Alexandre Zoubkov	Latvia - Janis Minins	United States - Steven Holcomb
Bobsleigh two-woman	Germany - Sandra Kiriasis	Germany - Cathleen Martini	United States - Shauna Rohbock
Men's skeleton	Aleksandr Tretyakov (RUS)	Frank Rommel (GER)	Florian Grassl (GER)
Women's skeleton	Marion Trott (GER)	Shelley Rudman (GBR)	Katie Uhlaender (USA)

Bobsleigh

Two-man

February 21–22, 2009, at 08:30 EST (13:30 UTC) for the last two runs. The eventual silver medalists from Germany had the fastest first run, but the Swiss duo of Rüegg and Grand had the fastest times for the remaining three runs. Three-time and defending champion André Lange of Germany finished fifth.

Pos	Team	Time
Gold	Switzerland II (Ivo Rüegg, Cédric Grand)	3:42.20
Silver	Germany I (Thomas Florschütz, Marc Kühne)	+0.22
Bronze	United States I (Steven Holcomb, Curtis Tomasevicz)	+0.40

Four-man

February 28 – March 1, 2009. The United States had the fastest time in each of the four runs to win their first bobsleigh gold medal at the World championships since 1959. This was Latvia's first ever medal at the championships while five-time and defending champion Lange of Germany would finish second.

Pos	Team	Time
Gold	United States I (Steven Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, Curtis Tomasevicz)	3:36.61
Silver	Germany II (André Lange, Alexander Rödiger, Kevin Kuske, Martin Putze)	+ 0.97
Bronze	Latvia I (Jānis Miņins, Daumants Dreiškens, Oskars Melbārdis, Intars Dambis)	+ 1.00

Two-woman

February 20–21, 2009. The Canadian duo of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse led after the first run while Rohbock/Meyers led after the second run before the British team of Minichiello/Cooke had the fastest third and fourth runs. Three-time defending champion Sandra Kiriasis of Germany finished seventh.

Pos	Team	Time
Gold	United Kingdom I (Nicola Minichiello, Gillian Cooke)	3:48.22
Silver	United States I (Shauna Rohbock, Elana Meyers)	+0.38
Bronze	Germany II (Cathleen Martini, Janine Tischer)	+0.62

Skeleton

Men

February 27–28, 2009. The second run was cancelled after 20 skeleton racers had completed to irregular track conditions. Pengilly came from 15th after the first run to earn the silver medal. It was also Stähli's third gold medal which he earned on his 41st birthday.

Pos	Athlete	Time
Gold	Gregor Stähli (SUI)	2.46.58
Silver	Adam Pengilly (GBR)	+0.35
Bronze	Aleksandr Tretyakov (RUS)	+0.51

Women

February 26–27, 2009. Trott set the track record in the first run and had the fastest time in all three runs. The final run was plagued with heavy rainfall and strong winds up to 50 mph (85 km/h). It was Williams' first world championship medal.

Pos	Athlete	Time
Gold	Marion Trott (GER)	3:47.97
Silver	Amy Williams (GBR)	+0.59
Bronze	Kerstin Szymkowiak (GER)	+0.64

Mixed team

February 22, 2009. The mixed team event – consisting of one run each of men's skeleton, women's skeleton, 2-man bobsleigh, and 2-women bobsleigh – debuted at the 2007 championships. Germany had the fastest times in the first and third runs to win its third straight mixed team championship.

Pos	Team	Time
Gold	Germany (Frank Rommel, Sandra Kiriasis, Patricia Polifka, Marion Trott, Thomas Florschütz, & Andreas Barucha)	3:45.41
Silver	Switzerland (Gregor Stähli, Sabrina Hafner, Anne Dietrich, Maya Pedersen, Ivo Rüegg, & Cédric Grand)	+0.24
Bronze	United States (Eric Bernotas, Shauna Rohbock, Valerie Fleming, Katie Uhlaender, Steven Holcomb, & Justin Olsen)	+0.25

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany (GER)	2	2	2	6
2	Switzerland (SUI)	2	1	0	3
3	Great Britain (GBR)	1	2	0	3
4	United States (USA)	1	1	2	4
5	Latvia (LAT)	0	0	1	1
	Russia (RUS)	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 entries)		6	6	6	18

References

1. ^ School project at FIL World Luge Championships in Lake Placid. at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (September 26, 2008, article accessed October 3, 2008.)
2. 41st FIL World Championships in Lake Placid. at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (October 6, 2008, article accessed October 17, 2008.)
3. WSLP-FM official website. Archived 2009-02-15 at the Wayback Machine - accessed February 17, 2009.
4. Universal Sports Bobsled website access. - accessed February 17, 2009.
5. "FIBT 2008-09 men's bobsleigh World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
6. "FIBT 2008-09 two-man bobsleigh World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
7. "FIBT 2008-09 four-man bobsleigh World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
8. "FIBT 2008-09 two-woman bobsleigh World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
9. "FIBT 2008-09 men's skeleton World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
10. "FIBT 2008-09 women's skeleton World Cup final results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
11. FIBT World Championships 2009 bobsleigh two-man results. Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine - accessed February 22, 2009.
12. "FIBT World Championships 2009 bobsleigh four-man results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
13. Holcomb Wins 4-Man in Lake Placid, Ends USA Drought at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
14. FIBT World Championships 2009 bobsleigh two-woman results. Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine - accessed February 21, 2009.
15. Staehli First Day Leader in Men's World Skeleton at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
16. "FIBT World Championships 2009 men's skeleton results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
17. Staehli Wins Third World Skeleton Championship at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
18. "FIBT World Championships 2009 women's skeleton results". Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
19. Trott Sets Track Record, Takes Women's Skeleton Lead at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
20. Trott Takes Bauhaus FIBT Women's Skeleton Championship at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
21. FIBT World Championships 2009 mixed team results. Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine - accessed February 22, 2009.

• United States Olympic Committee July 11, 2005 announcement of the FIBT awarding the FIBT World Championships 2009 to Lake Placid - Accessed November 6, 2007.

v t e IBSF World Championships
	1930s	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
	1940s	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
	1950s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
	1960s	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
	1970s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
	1980s	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
	1990s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
	2000s	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
	2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
	2020s	2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

• 2009 in bobsleigh
• IBSF World Championships
• 2009 in skeleton
• International sports competitions hosted by the United States
• Sports in Lake Placid, New York
• 2009 in American sports
• Bobsleigh in the United States