Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi won gold in the women's two-man bobsled at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, repeating their 2022 Beijing success. Lisa Buckwitz and Nele Schuten secured silver for a German double victory. The medals significantly boost the German team's tally.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, German bobsledders achieved a double victory in the women's two-man bob. Laura Nolte from Winterberg, aged 27, piloted the sled with her close friend Deborah Levi as pusher to win gold. They repeated their Olympic triumph from Beijing 2022 and triumphed with nearly a one-second lead over the silver team. Five days after missing gold in the monobob, where Nolte lost by 0.04 seconds to Kaillie Humphries, they kept their composure this time.
Nolte said on ARD: "We are so happy; the tension before the fourth run was already quite high. We had the favorite role, and you have to deliver on that first." Levi emphasized their friendship: "Our friendship also carried us to gold."
Lisa Buckwitz, 31 from Berlin, and Nele Schuten took silver, 0.53 seconds behind Nolte. For Buckwitz, it is her first medal as pilot; in 2018, she pushed Mariama Jamanka to gold. She achieved a historic feat as the first German with medals in both roles: "I have achieved something historic; no German woman has done that before me, and I am incredibly proud of myself."
Bronze went to 40-year-old US-American Kaillie Humphries with Jasmine Jones, 0.75 seconds behind gold. Kim Kalicki and Talea Prepens finished fourth, 0.15 seconds from bronze. Kalicki, 28, is now considering retirement: "I will have some talks now and decide by the end of March whether I do one more year or if this was my last race."
The medals are the 16th and 17th for the Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (BSD). Germany has a total of 24 medals and ranks sixth. They mark the seventh gold medal and the fifth from the ice channel. The BSD has surpassed the 2022 tally of 16 medals; the men's four-man bob is still pending, where Germans lead places one to three.
