From Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA
(February 21, 2026) – Earlier in the week Laura Nolte looked devastated. She’d put down three and a half great drives in monobob, but a few few mistakes in her last run left her in second place behind Elana Meyers Taylor.
Teary-eyed on the podium, she later told the media that she had felt like she’d “lost gold instead of winning silver.” A day later she posted that she was proud of her effort, but was also ready to move onto two-woman.
And onward she moved. On Saturday she slid to her second straight gold medal alongside Deborah Levi in a dominating second day of sliding for the German pair.
The duo had the second quickest start in the third heat, and Nolte put down a gem of a drive to extend her lead over teammate Lisa Buckwitz by another .17. Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, the Heat 1 leader, couldn’t match the pace of either German pilot and sat third after the run, with Germany’s Kim Kalicki lingering in fourth.
The second heat saw Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill slide to the lead from fifth place, well ahead of Melanie Hasler and Nadja Pasternack of Switzerland. But Kim Kalicki, in her final race alongside Talea Prepens, put down their best start of the race and Kalicki an outstanding drive to move into the lead by .35.
But to get on the podium, Kalicki needed a mistake from Armbruster Humphries that never came. Alongside Jasmine Jones, Armbruster Humphries matched her best start of the race and put down what was the quickest run of the heat to that point to solidify another medal for the American.
Buckwitz was next. After a monobob race where she expected to contend for medals but never really played a factor in fourth place, she and Neele Schuten matched the quick start of the heat and Buckwitz the best drive to that point to slide to a .22 lead ahead of Armbruster Humphries to get her first Olympic medal since winning gold on the brakes of Mariama Jamanka in 2018.
Finally it was Nolte’s turn. Earlier in the week she’d sat in this exact position: In the lead with her fate in her own hands. But this time she shined gold: A great start with Levi plus another near-perfect drive to give the duo their second straight two-woman gold, with Buckwitz and Schuten silver and Armbruster Humphries and Jones bronze.
When asked about the pressure of trying to defend gold with a final run, Nolte said that the pressure is there, but she’s used to it.
“Of course, we’re aware of the external pressure, but we’ve gotten past the point where it unsettles us or makes us nervous,” she told the German media after the race. “We’ve been dealing with this for a few years now. And it simply gives us confidence because we know we’re the ones being hunted. The others know they’ll have to come up with something special to beat us. On the one hand, it gives us confidence, but on the other hand, we’re also grounded enough to know that everything has to be just right for us, too.”
For Buckwtiz, a silver medal wasn’t a surprise, but she had to overcome some doubt on her way to the podium.
“The long journey I’ve taken, from brakewoman to pilot. It wasn’t always easy for me, and to be standing here now wearing this medal, it’s incredible to have achieved this with Neele. She pushed me. I had a fantastic race; I never thought I’d be able to pull it off like that, because after the season I sometimes doubted myself, whether I could even do it and in what shape.”
Armbruster Humphries’ bronze medal was the sixth Olympic medal of her illustrious career. She and Jones became the first pair of moms to stand on an Olympic bobsled podium.
“To know that we literally gave it everything we had, two moms on the Olympic podium for the first time ever, is super special, and I was so honored and excited to have this moment with her,” Armbruster Humphries told the media after the race.
Kalicki finished her sliding career with a fourth place finish, with Love fifth and Hasler sixth.
Meyers Taylor and Jadin O’Brien had a huge third heat that moved the duo back into the top six after a disappointing run in the second heat dropped them to 12th. Their fourth run was just a bit off pace as they finished tied for seventh to round out the American effort.
Bianca Ribi had to grind to make the Canadian Olympic team, but with Skyler Sieben she was the top-finishing pilot in a tie for 11th place. Teammates Melissa Lotholz and Kelsey Mitchell were 13th, one spot ahead of Canada’s Cynthia Appiah and Dawn Richardson Wilson.
Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll and Ashleigh Nelson had two outstanding runs to move from 21st overnight to finish 15th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 1 | 56.97 | 56.96 | 57.26 | 57.27 | 3:48.46 |
| 2 | Buckwitz / Schuten | GER | 4 | 57.05 | 57.06 | 57.43 | 57.45 | 3:48.99 |
| 3 | Armbruster Humphries / Jones | USA | 2 | 56.92 | 57.24 | 57.57 | 57.48 | 3:49.21 |
| 4 | Kalicki / Prepens | GER | 3 | 57.13 | 57.23 | 57.46 | 57.54 | 3:49.36 |
| 5 | Love / Hill | USA | 8 | 57.18 | 57.37 | 57.57 | 57.59 | 3:49.71 |
| 6 | Hasler / Pasternack | SUI | 7 | 57.22 | 57.61 | 57.95 | 57.62 | 3:50.40 |
| 7 | Annen / Kora | SUI | 9 | 57.42 | 57.61 | 57.83 | 57.63 | 3:50.49 |
| 7 | Meyers Taylor / O’Brien | USA | 6 | 57.14 | 57.99 | 57.60 | 57.76 | 3:50.49 |
| 9 | Beierl / Williams | AUT | 5 | 57.32 | 57.63 | 57.96 | 57.68 | 3:50.59 |
| 10 | Walker / Reddingius | AUS | 24 | 57.45 | 57.60 | 57.96 | 57.81 | 3:50.82 |
| 11 | Ribi / Sieben | CAN | 12 | 57.57 | 57.55 | 58.16 | 58.16 | 3:51.44 |
| 11 | Huai / Wang | CHN | 13 | 57.60 | 57.60 | 58.22 | 58.02 | 3:51.44 |
| 13 | Lotholz / Mitchell | CAN | 14 | 57.29 | 57.64 | 58.82 | 57.78 | 3:51.53 |
| 14 | Appiah / Richardson Wilson | CAN | 11 | 57.68 | 57.66 | 58.41 | 58.04 | 3:51.79 |
| 15 | Nicoll / Nelson | GBR | 17 | 58.03 | 57.97 | 58.03 | 57.80 | 3:51.83 |
| 16 | Kim / Yeon | KOR | 15 | 57.88 | 57.91 | 58.15 | 58.10 | 3:52.04 |
| 17 | Boch / Senchal | FRA | 10 | 57.98 | 57.85 | 58.54 | 58.05 | 3:52.42 |
| 18 | Weiszewski / Adamek | POL | 18 | 57.74 | 58.36 | 58.24 | 58.29 | 3:52.63 |
| 19 | Cernanska / Mokrasova | SVK | 16 | 57.94 | 57.86 | 58.58 | 58.31 | 3:52.69 |
| 20 | Andreutti / Gatti | ITA | 19 | 57.76 | 58.16 | 58.28 | 58.97 | 3:53.17 |
| 21 | Blizzard / Johnson | AUS | 22 | 58.07 | 57.91 | 58.42 | 2:54.40 | |
| 22 | Ying / Wang | CHN | 23 | 58.03 | 57.96 | 58.50 | 2:54.49 | |
| 23 | de Silvestro / Costella | ITA | 21 | 58.33 | 57.93 | 58.62 | 2:54.88 | |
| 24 | Haslwanter / Festin | AUT | 25 | 58.10 | 58.20 | 58.61 | 2:54.91 | |
| 25 | Lin / Lin | TPE | 20 | 58.65 | 59.09 | 59.03 | 2:56.77 |