From St. Moritz, SUI
(February 28, 2026) – Julia Taubitz backed up her Olympic gold medal in Cortina d’Ampezzo with another victory, this time in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Taubitz came into the second heat in fifth place, over a tenth of a second behind Austria’s Dorothea Schwarz in third and nearly three tenths behind leader Sandra Robatscher of Italy.
But in the second heat Taubitz put down the quickest downtime of the race to take the lead from Swiss slider Natalie Maag, and then settled in the leader’s box as she watched slider after slider fail to match her combined time.
Italy’s Verena Hofer took the first shot at it, but could only get within .225 of the Olympic gold medalist. Schwarz was next, and while her second effort was otherwise clean, she couldn’t match either Taubitz’s or Hofer’s pace and fell behind the duo.
Taubitz’s teammate Merle Fräbel, like Scwharz, had an uneventful second run but her pace was only good enough for second with Robatscher still to go.
Finally it was the Italian’s turn. Looking for her first gold medal in a few seasons, Robatscher pulled off with a start that was quicker than Taubitz’s. But the pace just wasn’t in her sled, as she had a clean run that was only good enough for sixth quickest of the heat and a combined time that was fourth overall, handing the win to Taubitz.
“The first run was pretty annoying after Horseshoe,” Taubitz told the media after the race. “But I was able to catch up relatively quickly.”
The win for Taubitz was her second on the World Cup season. For Fräbel, silver was her fourth medal on the season.
Hofer, who’s in the middle of the best season of her career, won her third medal with bronze.
Robatscher’s fourth place finish, while disappointing, was also her best of the season. Schwarz and Maag were sixth and seventh.
USA’s Summer Britcher, the lone American in St. Moritz, was seventh.
With one race remaining in the World Cup season there’s a logjam at the top of the standings. Taubitz leads Fräbel by just 19 points. Lisa Schulte, who came into the race as the World Cup leader but had a disappointing 11th place finish, is third overall by 51 points. Summer Britcher sits fourth, just 58 points behind Schulte despite missing the first Winterberg stop on the year.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Julia Taubitz | GER | 12 | 3.259 | 3.300 | 54.280 | 53.864 | 1:48.144 |
| 2 | Merle Fräbel | GER | 16 | 3.249 | 3.240 | 54.073 | 56.192 | 1:48.265 |
| 3 | Verena Hofer | ITA | 11 | 3.267 | 3.247 | 54.191 | 54.178 | 1:48.369 |
| 4 | Sandra Robatscher | ITA | 8 | 3.267 | 3.275 | 53.997 | 54.385 | 1:48.382 |
| 5 | Dorothea Schwarz | AUT | 7 | 3.267 | 3.283 | 54.123 | 54.311 | 1:48.434 |
| 6 | Natalie Maag | SUI | 13 | 3.292 | 3.259 | 54.296 | 54.330 | 1:48.626 |
| 7 | Summer Britcher | USA | 15 | 3.247 | 3.261 | 54.332 | 54.521 | 1:48.853 |
| 8 | Melina Fischer | GER | 10 | 3.262 | 3.298 | 54.559 | 54.465 | 1:49.024 |
| 9 | Anna Berreiter | GER | 14 | 3.269 | 3.258 | 54.531 | 54.501 | 1:49.032 |
| 10 | Nina Zöggeler | ITA | 4 | 3.355 | 3.354 | 54.505 | 54.610 | 1:49.115 |
| 11 | Lisa Schulte | AUT | 17 | 3.287 | 3.325 | 54.349 | 54.950 | 1:49.299 |
| 12 | Yulianna Tunytska | UKR | 5 | 3.270 | 3.276 | 54.644 | 54.699 | 1:49.343 |
| 13 | Olena Smaha | UKR | 6 | 3.234 | 3.265 | 54.630 | 54.807 | 1:49.437 |
| 14 | Klaudia Domaradzka | POL | 2 | 3.289 | 3.337 | 54.900 | 55.284 | 1:50.184 |
| 15 | Ioana-Corina Buzatoiu | ROU | 1 | 3.275 | 3.299 | 55.626 | 55.653 | 1:51.279 |
| 16 | Zane Kaluma | LAT | 3 | 3.281 | 3.302 | 55.066 | 56.390 | 1:51.456 |
| DNF | Kendija Aparjode | LAT | 9 | 3.245 | DNF |