CALGARY, Alberta — Utah's own Lincoln DeWitt and Tricia Stumpf proved once again Sunday that they are among the world's elite in the thrilling sport of skeleton.
The two Park City residents each won bronze medals in the 2001 Skeleton World Championships, held at the Canada Olympic Park on the outskirts of Calgary.
Competing in the two-day events were 36 men from such diverse countries as Mexico, South Korean and France, and 25 women from around the globe, including Japan, New Zealand, Italy and Russia, among others.
With all these top athletes, only sliders from Austria and Canada beat DeWitt's time in the men's singles. And in the women's singles, the gold and silver went to competitors from Switzerland and Great Britain.
Jim Shea Jr., of Lake Placid, N.Y., was fourth to round out the strong U.S. showing in the men's event.
"I'm just excited. It was a good couple of days . . .," said the 30-year-old Stumpf. "It's excellent preparation for the Olympics" to be held in Utah next year."
Stumpf, who has lived in Park City for 11 years, said the Calgary track and the Utah Olympic Park bobsled/luge/skeleton track at Bear Hollow are different beasts. But Calgary is her second home — and a comfortable track — since she spends more time sliding here than any other track than Park City.
Next week, the final World Cup races will be held at Utah Olympic Park. "That's the new focus — after celebrating tonight," she said.
The 33-year-old DeWitt said he was especially pleased about going to the podium Sunday. "It was one of two races I was keying on this year," he said.
The other is the overall rankings in the World Cup competitions. The World Cup is a season-long series of races over the season. With five down and one to go — next week's Park City races — DeWitt is ranked third in the world.
The contest at Utah Olympic Park will decide the final World Cup standings.
The Bear Hollow event will be "the first race we've had in two years with all the best in the world there on the Olympic track," DeWitt said. "It's going to be sort of a test run for the Olympics."
As for the final standings at the world championships, the top four sliders in the men's singles following Saturday's two runs remained in the same order after Sunday's two heats. Austria's Martin Rettle took men's gold with a combined four-run time of 3 minutes, 48.06 seconds, followed by Canada's Jeff Pain at 3:48.94. Then came the U.S. twosome of DeWitt (3:49.25) and Shea (3:49.83).
And in the women's singles, Switzerland's Maya Pedersen broke into the top three Sunday with a four-run total of 3:55.56, followed by first-day leader Alex Coomber of Great Britain at 3:55.63. Stumpf clocked in at 3:55.87, with Germany's Steffi Hanzlik fourth at 3:56.56.
The skeleton athletes are so closely matched that, in four heats nearly a mile long each, Shea was only 1.77 seconds behind Rettle's gold men's performance. And Hanzlik was only one second behind the winner in the women's competition, with Stumpf just .31 seconds from the gold.
DeWitt said he was pleased with his showing in Calgary. He said he made "little mistakes here and there, but nothing huge."
For example, going into the fourth turn on both of his Saturday runs, he thought he was in the right position but ended up feeling his sled skid. During Sunday's two heats, he adjusted his approach, moving his sled over a mere couple of inches.
"That definitely helped," he said.
DeWitt noted how close the top athletes are in times. After the championship ceremony, he predicted that the Americans would do well in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games.
"It's going to be on our home track," he said. "Our team will have a very strong showing, but it'll also be tight."
Temperatures were below freezing Sunday, but not quite the 0-degree chill of Friday during women's bobsled competition.
As Stumpf was warming up for her final run, she mimicked a U.S. supporter by shouting at herself to "Come on!" Between shouts and steam-like puffs of breath, she pulled on her helmet, adjusted her Lycra hood and stood with her hands on top of the sled, which was balanced on end.
She seemed to meditate, waiting for the announcer to proclaim the track clear. She put the sled on the ice, crouched at the starting block and took off running. She leaped on the sled for her best time in four heats — 58.79 seconds.
When DeWitt was warming up, he trotted back and forth on the ice, his spikes making a fast tattoo on the ice as he ran in place before emitting a tension-relieving roar. After using a wire brush to clean the ice form the tiny spikes on his shoes, he adjusted his hood, put on his helmet, let loose another roar and took off for a swift 57.26-second time.
U.S. slider Christopher Soule of San Francisco, who on Saturday banged his head on a television camera on an overhead boom as he jumped up and down at the starting line, was one of several sliders who competed after the main timing mechanism failed.
"He's had bad luck . . . yesterday he almost knocked himself out with the camera," said Terry Holland, a U.S. skeleton team coach.
Soule's times were better Sunday, as he improved from 15th place to 10th. His worst run in the four heats over two days was his Saturday run immediately after hitting the camera, with his time 3.5 seconds slower than his best time Sunday.
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com