Farquharson's on fire: Park City's luge lady 3rd in overall World Cup standings

Ashley Farquharson, Park City High School alum, places 4th in the Austria Luge World Cup, sliding solidly into 3rd place in the overall standings. Photo: Matthias Schrader // Associated Press: Courtesy of USA Luge

INNSBRUCK/IGLS, Austria — Ashley Farquharson, The Wasatch Luge Club and Youth Sports Alliance slider, finished fourth in the women’s singles luge race on Friday in Austria, and holds third in the overall World Cup standings.

USA Luge women took three top ten finishes, the most of any country in the top ten.

The team’s other historic achievements come after a challenging week, with the loss of USA Luge coach, marketing manager and humanitarian Dmitry Feld on Jan. 10.

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A 2022 Olympian, Farquharson (Park City, Utah) led the U.S. women finishing in fourth place in 1:19.477. Farquharson continues to race strong this season and remains the third ranked woman in the world.

“I’m really happy with the speed shown today,” said Farquharson to USA Luge. “[There were] some small mistakes in the first run, but I was able to clean it up in run two.”

Farquharson’s second heat time of 39.657 ranked third.

Three-time Olympian Emily Sweeney (Lake Placid, N.Y.), who won the silver medal on this track in 2022, placed sixth with a time of 1:19.602. Teammate and 2023 Lake Placid World Cup bronze medalist Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) placed just behind Sweeney in seventh in 1:19.678. Emma Erickson (Park City, Utah) was 22^nd with a time of 1:20.453.

Just .024 seconds separated the top two spots on the podium. Austria’s Madeleine Egle, who owns the track record, won her third gold medal of the season, with a time of 1:19.200. Germany’s Julia Taubitz won silver in 1:19.224, with Taubitz’s teammate Anna Berreiter taking the bronze in 1:19.439.

Taubitz remains the World Cup overall leader with 455 points followed by Egle with 415. Farquharson is third with 301 and Sweeney in fifth with 264, while Britcher is in seventh with 233 and Erickson moves up to 21^st place from 26^th with 57.

The circuit will pause next weekend as the teams prepare for the World Championships in Altenberg, Germany on January 27-28, 2024.