Canada’s Elisabeth Vathje opens World Cup skeleton season with silver medal
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Canada’s Elisabeth Vathje won a silver medal at the first World Cup women’s skeleton race of the Olympic season Thursday.
She finished second behind Austria’s Janine Flock with a two-run time of one minute 50.39 seconds. Flock (1:50.13), who broke her own Mount Van Hoevenberg track record, won gold for the second straight season in Lake Placid while reigning Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold of Britain was third in 1:50.46.
Vathje, from Calgary, got off the ice and leaped into her mother’s arms in celebration. Vathje hasn’t yet qualified for the Pyeongchang Games, but the result obviously was a major boost in that effort.
“She’s going to be at all the races this year,” Vathje said of her mother, Rita. “She gets accreditation so she can be part of the action and she’s a massive part to my success. She just keeps me chill and helps me be such a head case. So I’m really thankful for her — and thankful she can catch me.”