From Altenberg, GER
(February 18, 2024) – The race weekends in Germany have mostly had slow ice this season, with unseasonably warm conditions leading to frosty and quickly deteriorating tracks. But on Sunday, Germany’s Laura Nolte found more speed in Altenberg than any women’s bobsled pilot ever on her way to a gold medal.
Nolte, with Deborah Levi on her brakes for the first time since the 2022 Olympic Games, missed the start record in her first run by just .05. But a what looked to be a flawless run got her down the track with a downtime of 56.08, .43 faster than anyone in the heat and .14 faster than Kaillie Humphries in 2018, who had the old record of 56.22.
Nolte’s second run wasn’t quite as quick, nor was it as clean, but it was still quicker than anyone else’s run in either heat on her way to a gold medal, her third on the two-woman bobsled season.
Behind Nolte, the battle for silver looked as though it would shape up to be a little more entertaining. Kim Kalicki, fighting injury most of the season, was ahead of Lisa Buckwitz and Lauryn Siebert by just .04. But in the second heat Buckwitz crashed, and Buckwitz finished her run on her side in what would eventually be ninth place.
Buckwitz’s crash meant Kalicki could have tried to just have a silver medal celebration lap. But she and Galander put down a push .05 faster than the first and a drive that was quick and clean to win silver.
Andreea Grecu and Teodora Vlad were quicker both off the top and at the bottom of their run. That plus Buckwitz’s crash gave Grecu her second career two-woman medal with a bronze.
China’s Qing Ying tied a career best with a fourth place finish thanks in part to pushes by Yu Wang. Kati Beierl and Isabela Indruchova put together two bumpy but quick runs for fifth, while Melanie Hasler and Mara Morell rounded out the top six.
The North American women struggled in Altenberg. Canada’s Cynthia Appiah had a bumpy first run that left her well back after the first heat. She finished eighth, ahead of Buckwitz and Cernanska. Morgan Ramsay, her brakewoman, made her World Cup debut in the race.
Elana Meyers Taylor, the lone American in either the two-woman race or the four-man race later in the day, was late out of Kreisel and crashed. While she did finish her run, she didn’t take a second run.
With one race left in the World Cup season, Laura Nolte leads Kim Kalicki by 62 points. Lisa Buckwitz remains in third, but falls to over 100 points back behind Kalicki. Melanie Hasler and Qing Ying sit fourth and fifth, respectively.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 2 | 5.59 | 5.58 | 56.08 | 56.45 | 1:52.53 |
| 2 | Kalicki / Galander | GER | 6 | 5.72 | 5.67 | 56.51 | 56.66 | 1:53.17 |
| 3 | Grecu / Vlad | ROU | 4 | 5.81 | 5.75 | 57.12 | 57.04 | 1:54.16 |
| 4 | Ying / Wang | CHN | 3 | 5.79 | 5.82 | 56.98 | 57.37 | 1:54.35 |
| 5 | Beierl / Indruchova | AUT | 10 | 5.90 | 5.87 | 57.11 | 57.53 | 1:54.64 |
| 6 | Hasler / Morell | SUI | 11 | 5.73 | 5.76 | 57.63 | 57.28 | 1:54.91 |
| 7 | van Petegem / de Haseleer | BEL | 1 | 6.03 | 6.02 | 57.61 | 57.78 | 1:55.39 |
| 8 | Appiah / Ramsay | CAN | 9 | 5.92 | 5.87 | 58.12 | 57.71 | 1:55.83 |
| 9 | Buckwitz / Siebert | GER | 8 | 5.62 | 5.61 | 56.55 | 66.30 | 2:02.85 |
| 10 | Cernanska / Mokrasova | SVK | 5 | 5.97 | 5.98 | 57.38 | 65.51 | 2:02.89 |
| DNS | Meyers Taylor / Jones | USA | 7 | 5.65 | 63.13 | DNS | DNS |
