Olympics 2022
Double success on the ice track: German women’s two-man bobsleds win gold and silver
Gold celebrations in the Beijing ice track: two-man bob pilot Laura Nolte and her brakewoman Deborah Levi.
© Robert Michael / DPA
The Beijing ice track remains the gold mine for the German toboggan and bobsleigh. Laura Nolte, the youngest pilot in the German bobsleigh team, drove confidently to gold in the two-man bobsleigh. Thanks to Mariama Jamanka it was a double success.
The Yanging National Sliding Center remains the gold mine for the German Olympic team. Laura Nolte is also the youngest pilot in history to have won the Olympics in the two-man bobsleigh. On Saturday, the 23-year-old from Winterberg was 0.77 seconds faster than Pyeongchang Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka, who made the first German doubles success for women perfect.
After Francesco Friedrich’s triumph in the small sled, it was the second gold medal in China for the German bobsled team. Elana Meyers Taylor from the USA won bronze, Vice World Champion Kim Kalicki from Wiesbaden took fourth place.
Laura Nolte: Sovereign fourth drive is enough for gold
After taking the lead at half-time, Nolte delivered the next clean run at the start of the third round. Winterberger and brakewoman Deborah Levi drove a track record in 1:00.70 and was already uncatchable ahead of Jamanka, who started with Germany’s best sprinter Alexandra Burghardt. In the end, the 2018 Olympic champion set the best running time, but Nolte was able to celebrate gold after a confident run.
The most consistent pilot of the winter thus prevailed. The World Cup third had celebrated four World Cup victories, Jamanka had not managed one. In the overall World Cup, only bronze winner Meyers Taylor was better, who, unlike Nolte, drove all the races. At the start of the bobsleigh competitions in the Yanqing ice track, Nolte had missed out on a medal in fourth place in the monobob.
More medals are promised in the four-man bobsleigh
On Sunday there should be the next German gold medal at the end of the games. In the four-man bobsleigh, however, Pyeongchang Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich is only 0.03 seconds ahead of Johannes Lochner. Third is Canadian Justin Kripps, who is 0.38 seconds behind and has to hope that the German pilots made a mistake.