Summer Britcher won a pair of World Cup luge medals Sunday, a decidedly up-and-down day of racing for USA Luge.
Britcher was third in the women’s race and joined Tucker West and the doubles team of Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman to win silver in the team relay. Britcher now has five medals this season. West won his third, and Mazdzer and Terdiman reached the podium for the first time.
But the Americans finished the day without Emily Sweeney, who pulled out of the women’s race after one run after apparently re-aggravating a neck injury that forced her to miss some time earlier this season. Sweeney suffered neck and back fractures in a frightening crash at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and is still dealing with some of the aftereffects of those injuries.
Later Sunday, USA Luge announced Sweeney had decided to end her season and will be returning to the U.S.
Germany’s Anna Berreiter won the women’s race, followed by Tatyana Ivanova of Russia in second and Britcher in third. Ivanova pulled 12 points ahead of Germany’s Julia Taubitz for the women’s season points title with two races left.
Ivanova and Taubitz are the only contenders remaining for the season title. Ivanova is bidding to be the first non-German woman to win the title since Gerda Weissensteiner won it for Italy in 1997-98.
Germany also won the team relay, finishing seven-hundredths of a second ahead of the U.S. Latvia was third.