Women’s luge competition got going at Cortina Sliding Centre on Monday, and German athletes were expectedly dominant. 

Germany has captured gold and silver in the women’s singles event at the last three Games, and things could very well stay that way at Milan Cortina 2026 with Julia Taubitz and Merle Fraebel each on a heater midway through the competition. 

RESULTS

The 22-year-old Fraebel put together a scalding Olympic debut, setting the track record with a 52.590 and overtaking the reigning world champion Taubitz by 0.048 seconds. On her second run, she kept that stronghold with a 52.659 to stay in prime position for gold. 

But Taubitz then one-upped her countrywoman, gaining incredible time on her second run and snatching the track record from Fraebel with a 52.550. Taubitz holds the overall lead with a total time of 1:45.188, just six hundredths of a second separating her and Fraebel. 

"We are teammates and we both want a medal," Taubitz told reporters at Cortina Sliding Centre. "We will push each other and be friendly. We enjoy it."

In bronze medal position after Run 2 is Latvian Elina Bota, who made a great recovery after a 5th-fastest first run. Italian Verena Hofer, gunning for Italy's second-ever women's singles luge medal and first since Lillehammer 1994, sits in 4th place and just six hundredths of a second off Bota's time. 

Ashley Farquharson put in a shock first run when she clocked a 4th-best 52.862, 0.271 seconds off Fraebel’s pace and just a thousandth of a second off Hofer’s initial 3rd-place position. 

The 26-year-old from Park City, Utah, never posted a time better than 8th place across the six training runs but found over half a second between her best training time and her first run. 

A blip in the last section of Run 2 meant Farquharson lost a bit of time, slotting into 5th on the leaderboard and 0.113 seconds out of a podium position. 

"I'm happy with the speed, I definitely left a little out there," she told reporters following her second run. "It's really anyone's game and anything can happen, so I'm certainly not giving up. I'm going to go out there and give it my best tomorrow."

Farquharson is still in great position to achieve her best-ever Olympic result after finishing 12th at Beijing 2022. 
 

Ashley Farquharson (USA) starts her first run in the women's singles luge event. Farquharson went 4th-fastest in Run 1.

Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Emily Fischnaller also looked impressive in her first run, finishing 7th with a time just three tenths off the leading pace. She sits in 8th place midway through the competition. 

Summer Britcher, who went 3rd-fastest in the final training run, made contact with the wall coming out of her Run 1 start and finished in 15th place, eight tenths off the leading time. Britcher improved on her second run by 0.164 seconds and sits in 12th heading into Runs 3 and 4, which would be a career-best result for the 31-year-old at her fourth Games.

Women's singles luge competition continues Tuesday, Feb. 10 with Run 3 slated for 11 a.m. ET. Medals will be awarded after Run 4 at 12:30 p.m. Each country's top-finishing sled will compete in the team relay on Thursday, Feb. 12.