Frei and Stewart - successfully on their way to the Para World Championships

The form is on point: At the World Cup races in Sigulda, Latvia, the two SMBC parabob athletes, Jonas Frei and Chris Stewart, showed their best form. Thanks in part to head coach René Zwicky.

No fewer than four World Cup races, one of which counted as the European Championships, were on the program on the challenging track in Sigulda. The SMBC teams were also strong contenders for victory and podium finishes. Jonas Frei had already clearly signaled his ambitions for top results with his third-place finish at the World Cup season opener in Lillehammer, Norway, at the beginning of January.

But things didn't go as planned: In one of the first training runs in Sigulda, the 28-year-old crashed heavily, catapulting himself from the sled – despite wearing safety harnesses. The sled sustained significant damage, requiring replacement equipment. However, Jonas Frei wasn't fazed by this setback. Together with track coach René Zwicky, he quickly worked his way back and immediately secured victory in the first World Cup race on this track, ahead of his club teammate Chris Stewart. Even more impressively, just one day later, Frei repeated his victory and claimed his second World Cup title of the season.

The third race brought another podium finish: a bronze medal for Frei at the European Championships on the same track. Christopher Stewart narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth. The European Championship title went to Briton Corie Mapp, and silver to Austrian Hermann Ellmauer. At the end of the two European Championship runs, Frei and Ellmauer were separated by a mere two hundredths of a second. With a silver medal in the final World Cup race in Sigulda, Frei brought his trip to Latvia to a brilliant close.

Now the World Championships on their home track
The para-bobsleigh team has now arrived in St. Moritz, where the World Championships will take place on the historic Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz Celerina on January 31st and February 1st. Frei and Stewart clearly signaled their ambitions for the podium in Sigulda.