A health-stricken Julia Taubitz missed her second victory in a row at the start of the Olympic year.
In Sigulda, Latvia, the toboggan world champion from Oberwiesenthal gave up a minimal lead after the first round and ended up third. The American Summer Britcher secured the day’s victory with 0.037 seconds ahead of the second-placed Austrian Lisa Schulte and 0.091 seconds ahead of Taubitz. Britcher also took the lead in the overall World Cup.
After the race, Taubitz reported about a “flu” that had “caught” her overnight: “There are some of us sick in the team. It’s going around a bit again at the moment. Get well again and then it’s time to attack,” said Taubitz on the ZDF microphone. Vice world champion Merle Fräbel narrowly missed the podium in fourth place (+0.096), Anna Berreiter came eighth (+0.385).
After a disappointing start to the season shortly before Christmas in Lake Placid, Taubitz celebrated her redemptive debut victory this winter – but the overall World Cup winner from the previous season was only able to carry some of the momentum into the new year. After the first run on Saturday she was ahead of Schulte by a tiny thousandth of a second, but on Sunday a weak start was her downfall.
Taubitz wants to fulfill his dream of Olympic victory at the highlight of the season in Cortina d’Ampezzo (February 6th to 22nd). In 2022 she went into the Olympic race in Beijing as the favorite, but ended up only seventh after a fall in the second run. Before that there are World Cup races in Winterberg and Oberhof.