The German bobsleigh pilots put a big exclamation mark in the last World Cup before the Olympic Games. On the natural ice rink in st Moritz (Switzerland) celebrated Kim Kalicki (TuS Eintracht Wiesbaden), Mariama Jamaica (BRC Thuringia) and Laura Nolte (BSC Winterberg) on Sunday (01/16/2022) in the two-man bobsleigh a triple victory.
Three European Championship medals, but no overall victory
The World Cup also counted as a European Championship – and gave the Germans three medals accordingly. The only drop of bitterness: Nolte narrowly missed out on overall victory. This secured the U.S-Pilot Elana Meyers Taylor, who competed in all eight World Cup races compared to the German. Nolte, who had calf problems, took the “defeat” sportily: “The overall victory is nice, but not a priority this season. What counts is the Olympics”, according to Nolte in the ZDF.
Heart sleep final in Switzerland
At the final World Cup, the bobsleigh pilots advertised themselves. Both rounds could hardly be surpassed in terms of tension. At half-time, the top 4 were only a blink of an eye apart. The American Kaillie Humphries (USA), but only 0.01 seconds ahead of Jamanka and 0.09 seconds ahead of Nolte and Kalicki.
With a new best time in the second run, Kalicki finally snatched victory. She won by 0.04 seconds ahead of Jamanka, who in turn was only 0.03 seconds faster than Nolte. “Now we’re going full throttle towards Beijing”, announced Kalicki.