Canada spoiled a potential U.S. bobsled and skeleton weekend sweep.
Olympic and world champion Kaillie Humphries also kept Elana Meyers from a three-race World Cup winning streak, taking the Lake Placid World Cup two-woman bobsled in a two-run time of 1 minute, 53.66 seconds on Saturday.
Meyers, with push athlete Lauryn Williams, was second and .12 of a second behind. Americans Jamie Greubel and Katie Eberling were third, followed by Jazmine Fenlator and Emily Azevedo.
The Canadian Humphries bounced back after finishing seventh in Park City, Utah, last week, her worst World Cup result in nearly two years. She dominated the World Cup tour last season, winning six of nine races.
Did that seventh last week inspire her?
“I don’t know if inspire’s the right word, but it definitely fueled the fire for sure,” Humphries said.
Meyers, an Olympic bronze medalist, broke through early this season with two wins in Park City after taking second to Humphries in the season opener at Calgary, Alberta.
Humphries broke the track record in her first run, which was .02 of a second faster than Meyers. Meyers and the three-time Olympic sprinter Williams made an error near the start in their second run to give Humphries a cushion.
“I made some major mistakes that cost us,” Meyers said. “We’ve got to clean those mistakes up. Lauryn did a great job pushing me. I need to follow it up with a good drive. Kaillie definitely deserved the medal today.”
Meyers kept her World Cup overall lead. She and Greubel are the only drivers to make the podium in all four races this season.
The U.S. had won the first four events of the Lake Placid World Cup on Friday and Saturday and was in the running to become the first nation to sweep a World Cup stop since Germany in Altenberg, Germany, in December 2008.
The women’s bobsled World Cup continues in January in Winterberg, Germany.
Lake Placid Women’s Bobsled
1. Kaillie Humphries/Heather Moyse (CAN) 1:53.66
2. Elana Meyers/Lauryn Williams (USA) 1:53.78
3. Jamie Greubel/Katie Eberling (USA) 1:54.00
4. Jazmine Fenlator/Emily Azevedo (USA) 1:54.07