Never on the podium in the World Cup
Neise shocks himself with gold in skeleton
2/12/2022, 3:39 p.m
In the sixth decision in the Olympic ice track, gold goes to Germany for the sixth time. Hannah Neise is on the podium for the first time since her World Cup debut – and can now call herself Olympic champion in skeleton.
The Gold Festival continues, the Yanqing ice track remains a black, red and gold winter paradise: Hannah Neise surprisingly became the first German Olympic champion in skeleton and continued the sheer unbelievable winning streak of sled athletes in China. One day after Christopher Grotheer’s historic triumph in the men’s race, the former junior world champion from Winterberg raced headlong to her next debut win. Australia’s Jaclyn Narracott and overall World Cup winner Kimberley Bos from the Netherlands took silver and bronze – and outperformed Tina Hermann. Only the thankless fourth place remained for the world champion, Jacqueline Lölling was eighth.
After the four gold medals of the lugers around record Olympian Natalie Geisenberger, there were only German victories in the skeleton too – a unique record in the “golden channel”. And the bobsleigh competitions with the outstanding flag bearer Francesco Friedrich are yet to come.
Like Grotheer the day before, Neise wrote skeleton history with her triumph, because there had never been a German Olympic champion since the women’s premiere in 2002. Overall, the daring “head-first” lugers in China won three out of six possible medals, Grotheer had led a double victory ahead of Axel Jungk.
Neise only qualified for the Olympics very late
The fact that Neise was the best after four runs came out of nowhere. The only 21-year-old has never been on the podium in the World Cup, where she has only been competing for two years. Only at the European Championships in St. Moritz three weeks before the start of the Olympics did the police candidate meet the internal standard for the Winter Games with eighth place – and then had to worry about her Olympic dream because of a corona infection.
Neise not only presented herself in top form in China, but also remarkably strong nerves considering her age. In their home town of Schmallenberg in the Hochsauerland district, around 100 fans watched a small public viewing as the “chick” took the lead in the third race despite a driving error in turn 13.
Neise’s recipe for success was obviously her composure. “I’m trying to be relaxed about the whole thing, then it’ll be fine,” said the rather reserved driver halfway through the race. In any case, she is not a person who “let the participation in the Winter Olympics hang out like that”. Nervous? “I won’t actually before the race.”
And so the competition was actually unable to counter in the final fourth run. Hermann only had to give up bronze in the last run, and a drama repeated itself for her: Already at the 2018 Olympics, when she was fifth, she had missed a medal by eight hundredths.