Laura Nolte slapped her bob over and over again with joy, then sank into the arms of her brakewoman and best friend Deborah Levi. At only 23 years old, the woman from Winterberg crowned herself as the youngest two-man Olympic champion in history and ensured the next German celebration at the Yanqing Gold Canal. With the superior lead of 0.77 seconds, Nolte overshadowed Pyeongchang Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka, who, however, made the first German double success perfect with silver. Elana Meyers Taylor from the USA won bronze, Vice World Champion Kim Kalicki took fourth place.
“I can’t believe it,” said Nolte at Eurosport. “That’s what we wanted the whole time. The Olympics were our dream, but nobody expected us to win gold right away.”
After taking the lead at half-time, Nolte delivered the next clean run at the start of the third round. Winterbergerin and brakewoman 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 last run, the ex-athlete drove to safety and even made a small mistake at the exit of the infamous curve 13. The great triumph could no longer be taken away from her.
On the bitterly cold ice track, Nolte also caught the eye visually as the Pink Lady. The gloves and the T-shirt under the racing suit were bright pink, only her World Cup transporter, which was also painted in the same way, was missing in China. Nolte and Levi, the two students are best friends off the ice track, delivered four almost perfect rides. “Laura is very compact in the first ten meters, plus Deborah’s sprint speed, it’s a combo that works very well. It doesn’t just work on the track,” said head coach René Spies.
The next gold medal beckons on Sunday
Nolte went into the first two runs completely nervous, almost didn’t get into the bobsleigh at the start of the second run – and still set the best time. The young athlete was so excited that she had hardly eaten during the day. “I was super nervous, I’ve never been so nervous in my life as before the run, I got dizzy at times during the warm-up, then I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, then I trembled, I got hot,” said Nolte.
In the end, the most consistent driver of the winter prevailed in Nolte. The World Cup third had celebrated four World Cup victories, Jamanka had not managed one. In the overall World Cup, only Meyers Taylor was better, who, unlike Nolte, drove all 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.
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.