Taubitz leads as Germany set for eighth straight women’s luge gold

Germany are on course towards an eighth straight Olympic women’s luge gold medal when Julia Taubitz claimed the overnight lead ahead of team-mate Merle Fräbel on Monday.

Fräbel, a Youth Olympics champion from 2020, topped the first round in track record time but world champion Taubitz lowered that mark in the second run to take a slender lead of .061 of a second into Tuesday’s final two heats.

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Latvia’s Elina Bota is a distant third, almost half a second behind Taubitz which is a huge margin in the sport where every one-thousandths of a second is crucial.

“I was a bit nervous in the first run and there were a few mistakes. But the second one was great. I was really in a flow and could enjoy it,” Taubitz said.

Taubitz aims for redemption after having to settle for seventh in 2022 as top favourite following a crash.

Other contenders struggled on Monday, with Austrian World Cup leader Lisa Schulte seventh with a deficit of .678 and American Summer Britcher 12th and trailing by 1.426 seconds after a terrible start.

Germany have won every women’s luge gold since 1998, and already have a gold on the Cortina track from Max Langenhan in the men’s event on Sunday.