Fastest in the ice channel
GOLD! Janine Flock crowns her illustrious career
On her fourth attempt at the Olympics, she finally did it: Janine Flock crowned her illustrious skeleton career at the age of 36 with a gold medal at the Winter Games in Milan/Cortina! After finishing ninth in Sochi in 2014, fourth in Pyeongchang in 2018, and tenth in Beijing in 2022, the grande dame of skeleton has now achieved total triumph on the Olympic stage...
On Saturday, the Tyrolean maintained her lead after three runs in the ice track in Cortina in the final run as well, beating the Germans Susanne Kreher (+0.30 seconds) and Jacqueline Pfeifer (+0.44). In 2018, Flock missed out on an Olympic medal by two hundredths of a second after leading after three runs, but this did not happen to her in 2026.
From an Austrian perspective, Flock's medal is already the 13th at these Games – the fourth gold medal after snowboarders Benjamin Karl (parallel giant slalom) and Alessandro Hämmerle (cross) as well as ski racers Ariane Rädler/Katharina Huber in the Alpine team combined. In skeleton, it was the second medal for Austria, the first for a woman; Martin Rettl won silver in Salt Lake City in 2002.
Flock picked up speed with each run
Flock showed from the start that she was the mistress of this track. The four-time European champion set a track record of 57.22 seconds in the first run on Friday, but Pfeifer took it from her in the second run with 57.18.
Nevertheless, it was enough for the ÖOC athlete, who had to give up the fight for the overall World Cup in January due to a concussion, to take the lead at half-time. This was secured by Belgium's Kim Meylemans, who was unable to compete for a medal in Cortina.
On day two, after a relatively hesitant start (22nd time), Flock improved continuously in each run, was already sixth at the third intermediate time and ended up being the fastest in the run.
"She showed mental strength; the third run is the most difficult," said teammate and training partner Samuel Maier, who will compete with Flock in the mixed team competition on Sunday.
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