Laura Nolte’s 27th birthday couldn’t have gone better: there were two running best times, a track record, a piece of cake and a serenade for the German bobsleigh pilot on Sunday (November 23rd, 2025) after the two-man bobsleigh race on the Olympic track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. After winning the monobob the day before at the start of the Olympic season, the woman from Winterberg had a perfect weekend and also positioned herself for the season highlight in February.
Nolte won together with pusher Deborah Levi with a clear lead over the Americans Kaysha Love with Azaria Hill and Kaillie Humphries with Sylvia Hoffman. After two runs they were more than three quarters of a second behind the winner. Nolte’s teammate Kim Kalicki, who was traveling with Leoni Fiebig, fell from second to fourth place in the second round (+0.93 seconds).
Nolte is welcomed with cake
In the monobob, Nolte had moved up to the top spot the day before after coming third in the first round. This time she dominated the race right from the start. After the second-best start time, she showed an almost perfect run in the first run and gained a cushion of almost half a second for the final. And in the second run she was by far the best pilot. At the finish there was finally a lead of 0.77 seconds. When she got out of the bobsleigh, she was greeted with a piece of cake by Thomas Schwab, the president of the Bobsleigh and Sleigh Association for Germany.
Kalicki is still falling behind
Kalicki had some disadvantages at the start because she went into the competition with back problems. However, in the first run on the track she was able to show off her driving skills and make up for the deficit. She didn’t manage to do this in the second round and so she had to let the two US sleds pass.
Lisa Buckwitz, on the other hand, still has a few problems with the Olympic track – especially in one section. Although she had the best start time in both runs, pushed by Neele Schuten, she made a mistake in turn four and was at a significant speed disadvantage in the lower part of the track.