Olympic Preview Women: Ready for Beijing 2022: Taubitz, Egle and Geisenberger favourites

Beijing (FIL) Two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing, four-time Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger (2 times single, 2 times team relay) has found her form again - after the birth of her son Leo and the one-year break from competition.

At the 53rd FIL European Championships, which were held during the World Cup finals in the Swiss noble winter sports resort of St. Moritz, the 33-year-old already claimed her 52nd World Cup victory and fifth European title. However, it was her first victory of the season. After setting the best time in the first run, she achieved the second-best time in the second run. Only Austria's Madeleine Egle, who won five out of nine World Cup races in the Olympic winter, beat her competition in run two. Geisenberger, who won Olympic gold medals in the singles and team relay in Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018, will now travel to Beijing with a boost of self-confidence as the defending champion. "The European title came as a complete surprise to me," said Geisenberger, "I didn't expect it at all."

Taubitz wins overall World Cup for the second time

Fourth place was enough for Julia Taubitz at the final in Switzerland to win the overall World Cup for the second time after the 2019/2020 season. "For me this is the highest award because it shows the progression over the whole season," said the 25-year-old from Oberwiesenthal, "I'm overjoyed to have clinched this." Taubitz has collected 979 points, Egle has 947 points on her account, Geisenberger 772.Thus the three World Cup leaders are also favoured for the precious metal in Beijing.
Five-time European champion Tatyana Ivanova, who competes for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), also has medal chances in Beijing 2022. The US-Americans Summer Britcher and Emily Sweeney, the Austrian Lisa Schulte, who finished third at the inaugural World Cup as Olympic premiere in China in November 2021, the third German starter U23 World Champion Anna Berreiter as well as the three Latvians Eliza Tiruma, Elina Ieva Vitola and Kendija Aparjode have to be counted among the outsiders.