St. Moritz Skeleton Race

Next Race - St. Moritz, Switzerland

When:       This Saturday - January 11, 2014 (Late Friday night MST)
Where:     St. Moritz, Switzerland
Time:        12:34 a.m. & 2:49 a.m. MST, Heat Start Times
Start #:     Noelle is 1st off.
Watch Online:      Heat 1 on YouTube:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekPyqYNmdE
                                           Heat 2 on YouTube:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWAsdqqpZlc

Insider Info

Noelle Pikus-Pace is feeling good this week except for a minor training injury in Horseshoe. I will post video and pics below. This is one of her favorite tracks. It is the only natural track in the world, meaning it is self refrigerated by the outside temperature and it is hand built each year. Noelle has been training well and is hoping for a top 3 finish. That will make her happy and almost seal her Olympic birth.

Olympic Qualification:

Noelle is in a good spot right now ranked 2nd in the World, with missing a race and is still 1st in the US. The Olympic team is not officially named until after the Igls, Austria race on January 18th, but it would take some real opposition to keep her out right now.

Here are Noelle's past results here in St. Moritz and the competitors to look out for in the race:

2003: Noelle Pikus-Pace 11th Place
2004: Noelle Pikus-Pace 9th Place
2005: Noelle Pikus-Pace 2nd Place
2006: Noelle Pikus-Pace 11th Place
2007: Noelle Pikus-Pace 1st Place
2009: Noelle Pikus-Pace 5th Place
2010: Noelle Pikus-Pace 8th Place
2013: Noelle Pikus-Pace 2nd Place

Competitors to look out for:

Shelley Rudman -GBR (1st place last year)
Anja Huber - GER
Elena Nikitina - RUS
Lizzy Yarnold - GBR

In case you are wondering, her elbow is behind that bump. Watch the video below to see how it happened.

A closer look!

That was caught from the video below just after exiting the curve.