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Julia Taubitz added a new chapter to Germany’s Olympic luge dominance on Tuesday. Elina Bota made some history for Latvia.
And Ashley Farquharson was moved to tears after giving USA Luge just the seventh medal in its Olympic history.
Taubitz rolled to the win in the women’s singles race at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, finishing her two-day, four-run strut to the gold in three minutes 30.625 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of Bota, who got the silver.
“This was the dream,” Taubitz said. “And now the dream comes true.”
Farquharson got the bronze, the third singles medal ever for USA Luge at the Olympics and matching the best finish by an American women’s slider. Chris Mazdzer got silver in men’s singles at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and Erin Hamlin got the women’s bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
This time, it was Farquharson’s turn.
Embyr-Lee Susko of Whistler, B.C., was top Canadian in the field of 20, placing 15th in 3:33.803, over three seconds behind Taubitz. Vancouver’s Trinity Ellis, making her second Olympic appearance, was 17th (3:34.329).
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the 23-year-old contributed to Canada’s sixth-place finish in mixed team relay following a 14th-place finish in women’s singles.
Meanwhile, Taubitz got the 17th gold medal awarded in women’s singles luge on Tuesday, and 13th to a German slider.
2-time women’s singles world champ
The Olympic singles gold medal was the only thing missing on Taubitz’s resumé.
She’s a two-time women’s singles world champion, five-time World Cup overall champion, a winner of more than 30 World Cup races and none of that takes into account how she has piled up medals as part of Germany’s near-unbeatable team relays.
And now, the biggest medal. The shiniest one, too. She’s the Olympic champion, taking over that crown from now-retired German great Natalie Geisenberger, who won the last three gold medals.
“I started crying in the last corner,” Taubitz said. “I knew the run was good.”
Taubitz and Fraebel were so far ahead of the field entering Tuesday the only way they wouldn’t win gold and silver was if someone committed a huge mistake.
Fraebel did exactly that.
It took about one second for her gold chance, or any medal chance, to be gone. Fraebel badly botched the start of her third run, bouncing off the wall and ping-ponging her way down the rest of the track. She went from second entering the third run to 10th entering the last, way out of medal contention.
And that meant, for the fourth run, Taubitz didn’t even have to get into fourth gear. With a lead of 0.704 seconds going into the final heat, there was no doubt that Taubitz would get gold.
“It was a lot of hard work the last 3 1/2 years,” Taubitz said. “I’m really happy and thankful.”
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