Germany’s women slide to Winter Olympics glory with bobsleigh one-two

Germany extended their historic sliding dominance at the Beijing Games with a one-two finish in the women’s bobsleigh to finish ahead of the United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor, who took bronze to become the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Games history in what may be her final race.

Again there was disappointment for Great Britain after Mica McNeil and Montell Douglas finished a lowly 17th on the day when the men’s curlers narrowly missed out on gold.

Laura Nolte held off defending Olympic champion and countrywoman Mariama Jamanka to capture a record-extending eighth sliding gold for the German team, who have swept all four luge and both skeleton events in addition to the two-man and two-woman bobsleigh on the sparkling new course nestled in the tree-lined southern foot of Xiaohaituo Mountain.

Nolte, who became the youngest ever female Olympic medallist in bobsleigh, paired with brakewoman Deborah Levi to clock a four-run combined time of 4min 03.96sec, a yawning 0.77sec faster than Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt.

“I’ve never had this feeling before,” the 23-year-old Nolte said. “It’s like we are drunk, but we’re not. We’re just drunk on happiness.”

The 37-year-old Meyers Taylor, who won the silver in the Olympic debut of monobob earlier this week before hinting at possible retirement, came in 1.52sec off the pace alongside Olympic debutante Sylvia Hoffman to earn a fifth career medal and eclipse speed skater Shani Davis’s mark for most won by an athlete of colour.

“There’s a lot of people that came before me,” Meyers Taylor said. “[2002 Olympic gold medalist] Vonetta Flowers is the reason I’m here, and Shani Davis and even [US speed skater] Erin Jackson. It’s just been such a long legacy of Black athletes at the