From Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA
(February 14, 2026) – In the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Janine Flock was the final slider off the top of the final heat. Holding a slim lead, her final slide was only tenth quickest as she fell to fourth and out of the medals.
Eight years later, Flock once again found herself alone at the start. This time holding a substantial lead after three runs, she just needed a clean run to secure her place in Olympic history.
Earlier in the heat, Germany had flexed their collective muscles. Hannah Neise, the 2022 Olympic champion, put down a clean run to take the lead from Great Britain’s Tabitha Stoecker. That lead held for about a minute and a half, as teammate and 2018 Olympic silver medalist and track record holder Jacqueline Pfeifer threw down an outstanding slide to take the lead by over seven tenths of a second.
The third and final German, 2023 world champion Susanne Kreher, put down another top three run in her final effort. While slower than Pfeifer’s, it was enough to hold her teammate back by just .14 with Flock to go.
As she’s done throughout her career, Flock had a start that was off the pace of those ahead of her. But as she’d done for years, she found speed throughout the run. Her fourth run was her slowest of the competition, but was only six hundredths off of her quickest run to cap a consistent four heats that gave her Olympic gold by .3 over Kreher, with Pfeifer in third.
Unsurprisingly, Flock was full of emotion when she spoke with the media after the race.
“I can’t believe it, it doesn’t feel real right now,” she told the media after the race. “It’s a dream to do this. I couldn’t tell what my time was. I just knew I put down four really consistent runs and hoped that it was enough.”
Flock’s victory was her first ever in a four-heat race. She’d previously won silver and bronze in world championships (silver in Igls 2016, bronze in Altenberg 2020). She also is now the first ever Austrian Olympic skeleton champion.
Kreher’s silver medal comes in her first Olympics. Despite not winning gold in World Cup action, she’s now added a second piece of hardware to go with her 2023 world championship gold.
And for Pfeifer, bronze is her second Olympic medal, coming off her best season in five years on the World Cup circuit.
Neise fell just short of another Olympic podium and finished fourth, with Stoecker fifth and reigning World Cup champion Kim Meylemans sixth.
Great Britain had an outstanding Olympics in skeleton. Along with Matt Weston’s gold and Marcus Wyatt’s top ten in the men’s race, all three women finished in the top ten as well. Behind Stoecker, Freya Tarbit finished seventh and Amelia Coltman ninth.
It was a little tougher sledding for the continental North American contingent. Kelly Curtis finished 12th to lead the way. Teammate Mystique Ro had a tough first couple of heats, but rallied to finish 15th with two good runs on Saturday.
Jane Channell and Hallie Clarke finished 18th and 19th for Canada.
Despite struggling to find pace on her home throughout the Olympics, Valentina Margaglio did lower the start record to 4.81 in the third heat on her way to a 16th place finish.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Janine Flock | AUT | 1 | 57.22 | 57.26 | 57.26 | 57.28 | 3:49.02 |
| 2 | Susanne Kreher | GER | 8 | 57.24 | 57.28 | 57.43 | 57.37 | 3:49.32 |
| 3 | Jacqueline Pfeifer | GER | 6 | 57.43 | 57.18 | 57.56 | 57.29 | 3:49.46 |
| 4 | Hannah Neise | GER | 10 | 57.45 | 57.40 | 57.59 | 57.73 | 3:50.17 |
| 5 | Tabitha Stoecker | GBR | 3 | 57.40 | 57.61 | 57.75 | 57.72 | 3:50.48 |
| 6 | Kim Meylemans | BEL | 4 | 57.70 | 57.62 | 57.49 | 57.86 | 3:50.67 |
| 7 | Freya Tarbit | GBR | 11 | 57.76 | 57.40 | 57.87 | 57.77 | 3:50.80 |
| 8 | Dan Zhao | CHN | 13 | 57.70 | 57.47 | 57.83 | 58.21 | 3:51.21 |
| 9 | Amelia Coltman | GBR | 9 | 57.86 | 57.73 | 58.13 | 57.60 | 3:51.32 |
| 10 | Anna Fernstädt | CZE | 5 | 57.90 | 57.86 | 57.83 | 57.85 | 3:51.44 |
| 11 | Nicole Silveira | BRA | 7 | 57.93 | 57.85 | 58.11 | 57.93 | 3:51.82 |
| 12 | Kelly Curtis | USA | 15 | 57.81 | 57.88 | 58.30 | 58.14 | 3:52.13 |
| 13 | Kimberley Bos | NED | 2 | 57.88 | 57.98 | 58.12 | 58.26 | 3:52.24 |
| 14 | Alessandra Fumagalli | ITA | 14 | 58.02 | 57.93 | 58.22 | 58.11 | 3:52.28 |
| 15 | Mystique Ro | USA | 16 | 58.25 | 58.11 | 57.91 | 58.21 | 3:52.48 |
| 16 | Valentina Margaglio | ITA | 19 | 58.20 | 58.07 | 58.06 | 58.58 | 3:52.91 |
| 17 | Marta Andzane | LAT | 21 | 58.37 | 58.15 | 58.32 | 58.09 | 3:52.93 |
| 18 | Jane Channell | CAN | 20 | 58.08 | 58.14 | 58.51 | 58.23 | 3:52.96 |
| 19 | Hallie Clarke | CAN | 12 | 58.51 | 58.22 | 58.31 | 57.98 | 3:53.02 |
| 20 | Nanna Johansen | DEN | 25 | 58.27 | 58.37 | 58.97 | 58.63 | 3:54.24 |
| 21 | Yuxin Liang | CHN | 17 | 58.38 | 58.77 | 58.79 | 58.59 | 3:54.53 |
| 22 | Sujung Hong | KOR | 18 | 58.88 | 58.45 | 58.73 | 58.67 | 3:54.73 |
| 23 | Darta Zunte | EST | 23 | 58.88 | 58.71 | 59.10 | 58.78 | 3:55.47 |
| 24 | Kellie Delka | PUR | 24 | 59.40 | 59.17 | 59.52 | 59.22 | 3:57.31 |
| 25 | Nicole Burger | RSA | 22 | 59.63 | 59.43 | 60.06 | 58.98 | 3:58.10 |