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Ukrainian and Russian Athletes are scheduled to start the World Cup men’s luge races in consecutive order on Saturday, meaning it is almost certain that athletes from those countries will cross paths at least near the start of the track.
Starting orders for the race in Lake Placid, new yorkWas posted on Thursday. ukraineAndrey Mandzhi will be the second starter down the hill at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and immediately following him will be Matvey Perestoronin – a Russian slider who is being allowed to compete as an independent neutral athlete.
That means Mandzi and Perestoronin will be close to each other at the top of the track, and will probably be somewhere in the finish area again after their first race is completed on Saturday. This also increases the possibility that the coaches of Ukraine and Russia can negotiate.
The start order of the races worked out this way because of how the finishing order played out in Thursday’s Nations Cup race in Lake Placid, a one-heat qualifier for the World Cup event. The first five starting positions in the World Cup race went, in reverse order, to the top five finishers of the Nations Cup race.
Nations Cup winner Johnny Gustafson of the United States will start from fifth position and Nations Cup runner-up Tucker West of the United States will start from the fourth position. Perestoronin was third and Mandzi was fourth, meaning they will be next to each other on the start sheet on Saturday. Italy’s Lucas Peccei was fifth in the Nations Cup, so he will be in first place.
Russia was expected to send six athletes to Lake Placid this World Cup weekend; Three lost their eligibility after new evidence was presented to the International Luge Federation that showed they were not neutral about the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The three Russian sliders who remain in the field – Perestoronin and Pavel Repilov on the men’s side, Daria Olesik on the women’s side – have all qualified for the World Cup race to keep their hopes of reaching the Milan Cortina Olympics alive.
The remaining three Russians are training in Lake Placid this week, but in separate groups from the Ukrainians.
International Olympic Committee Wants Russian athletes to have the opportunity to compete as a neutral in some individual sports in Milan Cortina. There are Russian sliders who are trying to qualify in men’s luge, women’s luge, men’s skeleton, women’s skeleton, and women’s monobob – but not in any team sports such as luge doubles events, or any bobsled races involving two- or four-person teams.
It is expected that a contingent of fans from Ukraine will attend the race this weekend, as Lake Placid has strong ties to that country’s sliding community. There have been several efforts by people in Lake Placid to send help to the Ukrainians during the war, and the village has even flown the Ukrainian flag several times as a show of support.
Some Ukrainian sliders took part in a march of support Wednesday night on one of the main streets of the Olympic Village with Lake Placid residents carrying flags and signs condemning Russia’s aggression.
The women’s singles race on Friday and the men’s singles race on Saturday will be the first World Cup events that Russians have been allowed to enter since the 2021-22 season, or just before the start of the war. The Russian sliders competed in a test event at the Cortina d’Ampezzo track last month and those results counted toward their Olympic qualifying bid, but were not considered a World Cup race.
The race in Lake Placid is the third of five races that will count towards Olympic qualifying, and the Russians need some results to boost their chances of securing a berth for Milan Cortina. The final two qualifying races for luge are in Latvia and Germany, and Russians may have difficulty obtaining visas for those countries.
Skeleton
In Sigulda, Latvia, Belgium’s Kim Melemens won the World Cup women’s skeleton race on Thursday, the first of two such events on this weekend’s schedule.
Britain’s Tabitha Stoker stood second and Austria’s Janine Flock stood third. The United States struggled again, with its top finishers – Mystic Rowe and Kelly Curtis – finishing 15th.
Ahead
Lug: menDoubles, women’s doubles and women’s singles World Cup races in Lake Placid on Friday.
Bobsled: Women’s monobob and men’s two-man World Cup races on Saturday in Sigulda.
Skeleton: Men’s and women’s World Cup races on Friday in Sigulda.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics