Goal achieved: Gold for Julia Taubitz

Women's singles Luge Winter Olympics Milan Cortina 2026

Cortina (FIL/10 Feb 2026) Julia Taubitz has achieved her goal: Gold in the women's competition at the Cortina Sliding Center. With four consistent runs, one of which set a track record, the 29-year-old German won very confidently in 3:30.625 minutes. She completely dominated this competition. She finished 0.918 seconds ahead of second place. “I was able to enjoy every run,” she said, describing the competition. "I was actually a little nervous again before the last run. But I enjoyed everything.“ And then came the postscript, typical of Julia Taubitz: ”It was the most awesome dance of my life so far."

The eight-time world champion had already started the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing as the favorite, but crashed in the second run after setting a track record in the first. Instead of winning a medal, she only finished seventh. “A dream was shattered,” she said at the time. But in Cortina d'Ampezzo, that dream came true for the five-time overall World Cup winner. “The last four years haven't always been easy,” she said, “but it all paid off.”

However, she had expected a much closer race. But her teammate Merle Fräbel, who was only 61 thousandths of a second slower after two runs, made a mistake at the start of the third run. After the four paddle strokes, the 22-year-old lost control of her sled when she lay down, hitting the barrier first on the right, then on the left. That was the end of her momentum. “I don't know why the sled reacted so sensitively at the start,” she said, searching for an explanation. She fell back to tenth place with a time of 54.144 seconds. With a run of 52.779 seconds, she was able to improve to eighth place. She was 1.547 seconds behind her victorious teammate Taubitz.

Fräbel's misfortune was Elina Bota's good fortune. The 24-year-old Latvian won the silver medal in 3:31.534 minutes. She benefited once again from her good start, achieving the best start time in all four runs. It was Latvia's sixth medal at the Olympic Games overall, the second silver. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevic was all the more proud when he congratulated Bota on her performance. “The medal is incredibly heavy,” she said after the medal ceremony, “I'm so happy and enjoying the moment.”

Bronze went to Ashley Farquharson of the United States. She finished 0.957 seconds behind winner Taubitz. She had already proven that the track in Cortina suits her when she finished fourth in the test competition in November.

Behind her came a duo from Italy: Verena Hofer (1.020 seconds behind) finished fourth ahead of Sandra Robatscher (1.107). Anna Berreiter, 2022 silver medalist, followed 1.385 seconds behind, ahead of Lisa Schulte. The Austrian, who leads the overall World Cup standings, was 1.437 seconds behind. “The quality of my run wasn't quite what I wanted,” she explained, visibly disappointed, “and I lacked speed on the track.”