Medal Ceremony
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Medal podium
The new (probably temporary) medal podium at the Lake Placid Combined Track. Due to construction, the historic location in front of the lodge was unavailable for the 2019/2020 season, so this new area was constructed on the back side.
Major medals
Rather than gold, silver, and bronze medals, everyone gets the same medal on a different colored ribbon.
This evening's medals
The skeleton medal ceremony awards medals to the top six finishers in men's and women's skeleton. (No bobsled events were held this day, so those medals were yet to be awarded.)
Team USA athletes waiting for the ceremony to start
Elena Nikitina (RUS) ambles toward the medal ceremony
A delightful feature of this sport and this venue is how close fans get to the athletes. The medalists are just waiting outside with what few fans remain in the cold December air (and light rain, as it happened on this occasion). Nikitina won the women's skeleton, and she's slowly walking from the lodge toward where I'm standing in front of the medal stand. In previous years with a more compressed schedule, a separate medal ceremony was held just for the women's skeleton, in the early afternoon.
Women's medal podium
6: Tina Hermann (GER)
5: Kendall Wesenberg (USA)
4: Mimi Rahneva (CAN)
3: Janine Flock (AUT)
2: Jacqueline Loelling (GER)
1: Elena Nikitina (RUS)
Women's medal podium
As the women step closer together, you can clearly see how much taller Janine and especially Jacka are than Elena.
Women's medal podium selfies
The women paused the ceremony take some group selfies on their phones.
Tomass Dukurs (LAT)
Medal for 5th place
This is just a crop of the previous photo.BMW IBSF World CupLake PlacidTeam LatviaTomass Dukursskeleton
Men's medal podium: flag raising
Unlike the old location in front of the lodge, here the flagpoles are behind the podium, so the athletes have to turn around to salute the flags. (Even though there are six medals awarded, only three flags are raised.)
Nikitina photographing the men's podium
After the women's ceremony, gold medalist Elena Nikitina (RUS) joined the audience just to my right to take pictures of her teammate Alexander Tretiakov, winner of the men's race.
Unknown Team Korea member
Someone from the Korean team (sorry, I don't know their name) joined the audience to photograph teammate Yun Sungbin, who made a disappointing sixth place finish in the men's race.
Men's medal podium
6: Yun Sungbin (KOR)
5: Tomass Dukurs (LAT)
4: Axel Jungk (GER)
3: Felix Keisinger (GER)
2: Martins Dukurs (LAT)
1: Alexander Tretiakov (RUS)