USA Luge's Summer Britcher is flying into the Olympics.
Britcher got her second women's singles luge win of the season on Sunday, moving her atop the World Cup standings and further cementing her status as a medal contender for theMilan Cortina Olympicsnext month.
She prevailed in Sigulda, Latvia, rallying in the second heat to top Lisa Schulte of Austria and Julia Taubitz of Germany. Britcher's two-run time was 1 minute, 23.840 seconds, while Schulte finished in 1:23.877 and Taubitz in 1:23.931.
It was Britcher's seventh career singles win, extending her all-time record for USA Luge sliders.
"Very, very happy," Britcher said after her third medal — two golds and a bronze — in three singles races this season. "I've had a lot of ups and downs here in Sigulda, but a long time ago it was like my favorite track and I really loved it. ... It was a lot of fun to feel that joy again on the track here."
Britcher has a chance to become the first American to win a World Cup overall singles crown. USA Luge has had four World Cup season-long champions — all in men's doubles. Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer were the first and then Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin did it three times, the last of those coming in 2002-03.
And — somewhat remarkably — Britcher leads the points standings despite missing a race. USA Luge skipped the season-opening World Cup competition in Winterberg, Germany, because it wasn't factoring into the Olympic qualifying formula.
Britcher was third going into Sunday's second heat; the singles races at Sigulda this weekend used the two-runs-over-two-days format, a bit of preparation for the two-day, four-run event at the Olympics.
Schulte and Taubitz were the only sliders who had a chance to catch Britcher at the end. They came up short, which evidently caught Britcher by a bit of surprise.
"I really did not think it was going to happen," Britcher said. "I tried really hard to not think about the results. With the one run each day, you have so much time to think about possibilities, so I really was just thinking about, 'OK, what do I need to do on the track?' So, I think maybe I had a little anticlimactic smile at the end. I was so shocked."
Ashley Farquharson was fifth for the U.S. in the women's singles race. Emily Fischnaller, who was fourth entering the second heat, lost control toward the bottom of the track and came off her sled. She did not finish — but walked off appearing to have avoided injury.
The women's singles win was one of two medals on the day for Britcher, who also helped USA Luge capture the bronze in the team relay.
Schulte and Austria won the team relay, with host Latvia second and the American team of Britcher, Jonny Gustafson in men's singles, Zach DiGregorio and Sean Hollander on the men's doubles sled and Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby on the women's doubles sled finishing third.
In the men's singles race, two-time Olympic singles champion Felix Loch of Germany got his 55th career win — two away from the all-time record of 57 held by retired Italian great Armin Zöggeler. Jonas Müller of Austria was second and Max Langenhan of Germany was third.
USA Luge plans to announce its Olympic team around Jan. 12, and the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams for the Milan Cortina Games are expected to be unveiled on Jan. 19.
At Winterberg, Germany, the host Germans swept a women's bobsled race Sunday while Kaillie Humphries Armbruster of the U.S. narrowly missed a medal spot.
Laura Nolte drove to the win for Germany, holding off teammates Lisa Buckwitz and Kim Kalicki. Nolte's two-run time was 1:53.63, which was 0.16 seconds better than Buckwitz and 0.66 seconds ahead of Kalicki.
Humphries Armbruster teamed with Sylvia Hoffman to finish fourth, 0.95 seconds back of Nolte. Elana Meyers Taylor drove to eighth place for the U.S., and Kaysha Love crossed the line 10th.
There was a four-man race later Sunday.
Bobsled: Women's monobob, two-man World Cup races Saturday at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Skeleton: Men's World Cup race on Wednesday at St. Moritz.
Luge: Men's singles, women's singles World Cup races on Saturday at Winterberg.
AP Olympics:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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