Laura Nolte from Winterberg is the first German monobob world champion. After bronze at the World Championships premiere in 2021, the two-man bobsleigh Olympic champion from Beijing prevailed in the title fights in St. Moritz.
After three best times in four runs, Nolte won 0.40 seconds ahead of monobob Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries from the USA. Third place went to Lisa Buckwitz from BCR Thuringia. Wiesbaden resident Kim Kalicki finished fifth with the best time in the fourth round. Junior World Champion Maureen Zimmer from BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg came in eighth. On the natural ice rink in the Swiss Engadine, there are only seasonal best times instead of records, since the track is rebuilt every November with 7,000 cubic meters of snow.
“The goal was a medal after the disappointing fourth place at the Olympics. I didn’t think I’d win right away. Kaillie is always a bank in mono, she’s always the strongest opponent. That makes the win all the more valuable,” said the 24 -year-old Nolte, who became youth Olympic champion in monobob in Lillehammer in 2016. In Beijing at the premiere of this discipline, she just missed a medal by finishing fourth by three tenths of a second.
Buckwitz, who had a cold, struggled with the thin mountain air in St. Moritz, nevertheless surprised with strong starting performances and was rewarded with bronze in her World Championship debut as a pilot. “My first medal as a pilot, all the efforts of the last few years were worth it. I had to cope with a lot of setbacks, now I’m all the happier,” said Buckwitz, who surprisingly won Olympic gold in the two-man bobsleigh as a brakewoman with Mariama Jamanka in Pyeongchang in 2018 .
