In the Sportschau winter sports podcast, Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi give insights into their deep friendship, fainting spells on the track and shopping in a bob suit.
In the new episode of the Sportschau winter sports podcast, the Olympic champions in Beijing, Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi, take a look at their gold medal run in the two-man bobsleigh, give many insights into their deep friendship in conversation with Julia Kleine, and explain the intricacies of bobsledding and talk about dizzy spells on the train.
sports show: Laura, you were born in 1998 and are the youngest bobsleigh Olympic champion in history. Is that a title that makes you proud?
Laura Nolte: That’s pretty cool – I didn’t know that before either, we were only told that at the finish. It just showed that starting so early was worth it.
sports show: You reported afterwards that you felt faint, that you felt nauseous.
Laura Nolte: I’ve never reacted like that before. That was before the first run, I was so nervous. I didn’t eat very much that day either. And then I was warming up and realized: OK, I can hardly feel my legs, I can hardly see the people. I was just really excited.
sports show: You actually did athletics, you were acquired by athletics in 2016, put in the bobsleigh and then they said: “Go down there”…
Laura Nolte: … yes, exactly. I knew some who also did bobsledding and sometimes dragged me along with them. That’s when I thought I’d be a pilot’s brakewoman. But then I was immediately asked if I didn’t want to drive myself, and less than two months later I was in the bobsled myself.
sports show: And then you stood in front of this steep wall in Oberhof, I think it’s four meters high…
Laura Nolte: … yes, there I stood in front of this wall and thought: “I can’t drive that far! How is that supposed to work? Help! Full up!” I was very nervous because I didn’t know it like that and didn’t see myself there. But somehow it worked out.
sports show: So things happened pretty quickly with Laura – how was it with you, Deborah?
Debora Levi: I was approached at an athletics competition in 2018. I did athletics my whole childhood, at some point I specialized in sprinting and at the German youth championships I was approached by a coach who said: “I have a request for you, but we’ll clarify it after the competition.” Then he asked me if I wouldn’t like to be a bobsleigh pusher and that’s when it all started. Just a week or two later I met Laura in Winterberg.
sports show: … and you immediately had the confidence to sit back in the bob?
Debora Levi: Yes, in any case. Laura and I got on really well from the start. It’s normal to feel uneasy at the start of your first ride. But yes: full trust in Laura.
sports show: The coaches have definitely given you enough confidence. You are now Olympic champions, European champions. In 2023 you also have the chance to win a title at the World Championships in St. Moritz that you haven’t won yet. How are you approaching this World Cup?
Laura Nolte: World Cup gold should definitely be added – we’ll have to see if next year. We also have a home World Cup in Winterberg, that will be really cool. Of course we’re really looking forward to St. Moritz, but we don’t know the track as well as others.
sports show: Is it so important that you train a lot on the track? Or are the differences in the ice?
Laura Nolte: That is extremely crucial, especially on difficult tracks. I will have a maximum of ten rides on the track before the World Cup. I just manage to do the curves and get to the bottom. I can’t get to all the finer details. It’s like this: the less you steer, the faster you are. This is of course only possible up to a certain limit, and one tries to get to this limit. But with ten rides, you don’t get a chance to experiment. You try to get there first – it’s different with the other drivers: you can wake them up at four o’clock in the morning and they can drive down there.
sports show: You can just wake you up in the middle of the night and then you know what to do in turn fifteen?
Laura Nolte: Definitely. We actually have to know every lane completely by heart.
sports show: It also looks really interesting when you do the track inspection. You have spikes under your shoes and walk the tracks completely.
Laura Nolte: Exactly, before every training session we walk the track once so that we can see what the curves are like, how long they are and what the ice is like.
sports show: You are not only a dream team in sport, but also very good friends privately. Isn’t that a special challenge?
Debora Levi: So I think you can get a lot of benefits out of it. A look in the face is enough to know what is going on in the heads of the others. On the day of the competition, too, we can give each other peace of mind and trust that this was our small advantage at the Olympics and hopefully will remain so for a long time to come.
sports show: Have you ever really had a fight?
Laura Nolte: We get asked that so often, but we’ve really never had an argument. Never.