CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Laura Nolte of Germany emerged Sunday as the leader after the first two runs of the women's monobob competition at the Milan Cortina Games.
And right on her heels — Elana Meyers Taylor and Kaillie Humphries Armbruster, chasing even more Olympic medals for their collections.
Nolte finished her two runs in 1 minute, 59.12 seconds on Sunday, giving her a lead of 0.22 seconds over Meyers Taylor and 0.31 seconds over Humphries
Armbruster going into Monday night's final heats that will decide the medals.
From there, the gap to the rest of the pack is a bit sizable: Switzerland's Melanie Hasler is fourth, 0.78 seconds off Nolte's lead, and Kaysha Love of the U.S. is fifth — 0.89 seconds back.
It is a loaded leaderboard, as would be expected.
Nolte is the reigning World Cup overall monobob champion. Humphries Armbruster won monobob gold at Beijing when the sport debuted in the Olympic program four years ago. Meyers Taylor won the silver in that Olympic race. Love won the world monobob title last year at Lake Placid.
Australia's Bree Walker, a winner of five medals — three gold — in seven World Cup races this season, struggled in her first heat and but rallied to be seventh going into Monday, one spot behind Lisa Buckwitz of Germany. But they're both about a full second behind Nolte, and well over a half-second behind the bronze-medal spot.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
