By Dan Plouffe
The oddsmakers wouldn’t have predicted it, but Ottawa’s Mimi Rahneva earned a World Cup skeleton victory on Friday in Sigulda, Latvia. She won the 33-athlete race by .18 seconds in a two-run combined time of 1:43.10.
“I needed a little win,” Rahneva said via Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. “I’m really proud of pursuing something that I knew I was capable of doing.”
Rahneva sat in third place after the first run, but slid ahead of Belgian and German competitors with an even stronger second run.
“It is a lot of pressure sitting in the top-three at the top of the track after the first run. It is never comfortable. You are always thinking don’t mess it up, just stay here. It is definitely a lot of work to not think about the result but think about the process,” Rahneva explained. “I was just thinking one corner at a time, finding the opportunities to go faster, and stay consistent.”
The fast starts that powered Rahneva’s rise early in her career have returned after injuries had slowed her in recent seasons. In combination with veteran driving skills, the two-time Olympian has proven to be a formidable force.
Rahneva hadn’t had many top finishes in previous World Cup races in Latvia, having placed 13th, 21st and 12th before moving up to sixth last year.
“This is a track I have been trying to tame for many years,” Rahneva highlighted. “It is a difficult track, a driver’s track, but I was comfortable with my environment this week. I was gaining confidence in training and started to believe in things.”
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The win was the fifth career World Cup victory for the 35-year-old who earned her 15th World Cup medal and 20th podium in global competition.
Due to work commitments back in Calgary, Rahneva missed the first World Cup race of 2024 on her favourite track in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she won World Championships bronze last season.
That hurt her chances of earning a repeat top-3 finish in the World Cup overall season standings. With two races left, she sits in eighth place.
The 2024 World Championships will be held from Feb. 22-Mar. 2 in Winterberg, Germany, while the World Cup skeleton season wraps up on March 21 in Lake Placid, N.Y., where Rahneva took up the sport after completing her rugby career with the University of Guelph Gryphons.