Venues announced for World Champs

British sliders now know where they could be tasting global glory in the next Olympic cycle after Norway, Switzerland and the United States of America were awarded the 2027, ’28 and ’29 World Championships respectively.

Great Britain have won medals at the most significant event of the year in each of the past two seasons, with Matt Weston crowned World Champion in 2023 and the 4-man bobsleigh team securing an historic silver the same season. There have also been three medals in the Skeleton Team event in that time, plus silver for Weston in Winterberg this term.

The first World Championships after the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games in 2026 will take place in Lillehammer, with the Norwegian venue hosting the event for the very first time since the two sports combined their competition schedules. 

Lillehammer did host a Men’s Skeleton World Championships in 1995 - a year after they welcomed the world to their maiden Olympic Winer Games in 1994 - but the city has not featured at the very top level since. It only made its debut on the combined World Cup circuit this season, when Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett won 4-man bronze in January, but it has regularly been the venue for Para Bobsleigh World Cup competition and it hosted the Par Bob World Champs in March of this year as GB’s Corie Mapp won bronze.

Lillehammer featured on the World Cup circuit last season

St Moritz will follow Lillehammer as the 2028 World Championship host, with the showpiece event returning to the spiritual home of sliding just five years after they last played host. GB will be hoping for a repeat of Weston’s win and the 4-man success at a track where Shelley Rudman won Women’s Skeleton gold in the previous most recent St Moritz World Champs in 2013.

In contrast to its Norwegian counterpart, St Moritz has hosted a version of the World Championships on no fewer than 25 occasions, with Brits winning four other medals, including 4-man gold for Frederick McEvoy’s men in 1937 and 2-man gold for Olympic Champions Tony Nash and Robin Dixon in 1965.

Park City is again at the opposite end of the spectrum to St Moritz, having never hosted a World Championships in any guise before. The USA has been the host nation on 10 occasions but all of those previous events have taken place in Lake Placid - the venue for this coming season’s competition in March 2025.

Park City, which is near Salt Lake city in Utah, last held a World Cup race in December 2022 when Laura Deas and Marcus Wyatt both won Skeleton bronze and Hall and Lawrence took 2-man silver.

Lillehammer was chosen ahead of Beijing; St Moritz saw off the challenge of Igls; and Park City was preferred to Konigssee and PyeongChang.