Welsh Duo Adele Nicoll And Kya Placide Target The World After Stunning World Cup Silver Medal

By David Williams

Adele Nicoll has spoken of her pride and ambition for World Championship success and she and fellow Welsh star Kya Placide won Women’s Bobsleigh World Cup silver in Lake Placid, USA on Saturday.

Nicoll and Placide finished runners-up just two months after they first slid together at the top level.

In a remarkable performance, the pair clocked a combined time of 1 minute 54.2 seconds in the United States to beat a whole host of big names, including the reigning Olympic Champion and current Olympic bronze medalist.

The medal was just the second won by a British women’s team in 15 years, matching the silver that 27-year-old Nicoll celebrated as a brakewoman behind Mica McNeill in Sigulda in January 2022.

“I’m extremely proud of the performance we put in,” said Nicoll, who is also the back-to-back British shot putt champion.

“To be able to produce that performance on the track that is holding the World Championships next year is a huge confidence boost.

World Cup silver for @adelenicoll & Kya Placide in ❕A truly incredible result in just their 3rd @IBSFsliding World Cup race together pic.twitter.com/W5p6jg0XoT

— British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (@The_BBSA) March 23, 2024

“We came here with the aim of learning the track so we could go into next season with some experience here but we’ve come away with a silver medal! We couldn’t really be any happier.

“We’re so grateful to everyone who’s supported us to get us here. It started last season when I decided to jump in the front seat.

“Just having those people in our federation back home believing in you and supporting you to make decisions and push you to be better has been a big thing for us.

“I always drive the two-woman sled knowing that I want to do well for Kya, too. I’m really happy she was able to give me a good start. She put me in the race and I drove it down to get us both an amazing result.”

Cardiff sprinter Placide said: “I’m feeling on top of the world, to be honest.

“I never, ever thought a World Cup medal would come this early into my career. I’m almost lost for words.

“We want to thank the whole of the BBSA, especially our coach, Sean (Olsson) and our performance director, Mark (Silva), plus everyone else who has supported us along the way.”

Our second women’s bobsleigh World Cup medal in 15 years @adelenicoll and Kya Placide storm to SILVER at Lake Placid, only two months since they started competing together

Ken Childs/@IBSFsliding pic.twitter.com/D3nuWG7vHW

— Team GB (@TeamGB) March 23, 2024

Nicoll only switched to the front seat after the Beijing Olympics and had just three World Cup starts to her name in the two-woman discipline prior to the competition.

Placide is even newer to the sport, having never set foot in a bobsleigh until this winter after joining the GB set up in the summer.

The 19-year-old was making just her fourth World Cup start and only her third with Nicoll.

The British pair sat in the bronze medal spot at halfway knowing that a top six finish would still be a remarkable result in such a strong field but they went even better in the second run as they maintained their position and then jumped ahead of back-to-back overall World Cup winner Lisa Buckwitz.

They finished four hundredths of a second ahead of Olympic gold medalist Laura Nolte and eight hundredths clear of Buckwitz, with Switzerland’s Melanie Hassler almost two tenths of a second behind them.

Only Germany’s 2023 World Champion Kim Kalicki – a slider with seven times as many World Cup medals as Nicoll and Placide have World Cup starts – finished in front of the Welsh duo as she and Leonie Fiebig came down in 1 minute 53.39.

BMW IBSF World Cup 2-Woman Bobsleigh race results:

Team Kim Kalicki / Leonie Fiebig | 1:53.39
Team Adele Nicoll / Kya Placide | + 0.81
Team Laura Nolte / Claudia Schüßler | + 0.85#IBSF100 #ready2slide #slidingtogether pic.twitter.com/l1aNKgffW3

— IBSF (@IBSFsliding) March 23, 2024

The result smashed Nicoll and Placide’s previous best World Cup result together of 11th in Lillehammer in January.

It came a day after Nicoll finished 10th in the Monobob in Lake Placid and provided a near perfect finish to the 2023/24 season.