Bobsleigh pilot Laura Nolte won the World Cup opener of the Olympic winter in Innsbruck.
The World Cup third from Winterberg prevailed at the start of the season with pusher Leonie Fiebig after two runs ahead of Vice World Champion Kim Kalicki and Canadian Christine de Bruin.
While Nolte maintained her lead from the first run and was able to celebrate her fifth World Cup victory, Kalicki and Anabel Galander moved up two places on the podium in the second run.
Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka took fourth place with pusher Kira Lipperheide together with world champion Kaillie Humphries (USA).
Nolte had already achieved the best German result on Saturday with her third place in the world series race in the monobob.
In the still young discipline, medals will be awarded for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (February 4th to 20th).
Double victory for Francesco Friedrich
For men, the dominator in the ice channel has also mastered the start of the Olympic bobsleigh season. Double Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich made the competition more than clear that Olympic gold in Beijing in both disciplines is only about him. The record world champion first won the two-man bobsleigh with Alexander Schüller in Innsbruck and then followed it up with victory in the four-man bobsleigh World Cup victory number 54. "We started the Olympic season with the best," said Friedrich. On Sunday he raced away from everyone in the four-man bobsleigh, 0.26 seconds ahead of Johannes Lochner from Berchtesgaden, who came second again - albeit at the same time as Brad Hall from the UK.
“We did well on the track, we can be satisfied, we did a good job. At the start we still have timing problems, but we still have seven weeks until the games, so everything should go as it should, ”said Friedrich, who was only thinking of his Olympic gold double at the start of the season. Lochner was also happy: “It was a hundredths fight from top to bottom, so it's fun. Now we know that we can keep up at the start. There were too many mistakes on the track, so it's not enough for Franz. But it's going where I want it to go. "
In the small sled, Friedrich had 0.47 seconds ahead of Lochner.
“In the second run we lost a few feathers,” said perfectionist Friedrich with small mistakes.
Above all, Lochner snatched the fastest start time in the second round with Florian Bauer.
In the previous season he had inflicted the only loss of the season on Friedrich am Patscherkofel.
"That is exactly where we have to go, annoy him a little and lure him out of the reserve," said Lochner, looking at Friedrich.