The women's skeleton competition is halfway through at Milan Cortina 2026 after Runs 1 and 2 on Friday at Cortina Sliding Centre. 

Competing in her fourth Olympic Games, 36-year-old Janine Flock of Austria set the tone early with a track record (57.22 seconds) as the day’s first runner. Flock then bookended the event, going last on Run 2 and keeping a 0.04-second lead ahead of the second day of competition.

RESULTS

Flock is Austria's most accomplished female skeleton racer, and is venturing into PyeongChang 2018 territory with the dominance she showed at the so-called "House of Speed." 

Flock led after three runs at PyeongChang, but a bumpy final run meant she finished 4th and 0.02 seconds out of a medal position. She then finished 10th at Beijing 2022.

From the start, no other slider could best Flock. Germany’s Susanne Kreher came closest in 2nd, finishing 0.02 seconds off the lead after Run 1. The entire top 5 was separated by just 0.23 seconds, and the top 8 by just over half a second after Run 1. Kreher, a first-time Olympian at 27 years old, is likely to be Flock's biggest rival for gold on Saturday.

After Run 2, Flock, Kreher and Jaqueline Pfeifer were separated by just 0.13 seconds. 

PyeongChang 2018 silver medalist Pfeifer set a 57.18 on Run 2 to edge out Flock's best time by four hundredths of a second. Still, she will head into Saturday sitting in bronze medal position. 

Beijing 2022 gold medalist Hannah Neise was just 5th after Run 1, but a flawless second run saw her leapfrog a position and end the day 0.24 seconds out of a medal position.

In one of the more surprising results, reigning world champion and defending Olympic bronze medalist Kimberly Bos was 11th after Run 1 and will have a lot of time to try to make up after ending the day 1.38 seconds back in 13th place.

Finishing eight tenths off  the lead was world no. 1 Kim Meylemans, who will sleep on an 8th-place result.

British trio Tabitha Stoecker, Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman put on a strong showing and sit in 5th, 6th and 9th, respectively. The Brits have a rich history in women's skeleton spearheaded by 2014 and 2018 Olympic gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold, who remains the only athlete in skeleton history with multiple Olympic gold medals.

Kelly Curtis was the first of the Americans to take her opening run, laying down a 9th-best 57.81. She finished the first half of the event in 10th place, 1.21 seconds off the leader.

Olympic debutant Mystique Ro’s 2nd-fastest start gave her momentum through the first interval, but she lost speed in the second portion of the track and finished in 17th and a second back of the leading pace after Run 1. Starting 9th on Run 2, Ro improved on her first time by 0.014 seconds to go to the top of the leaderboard but remained in 17th to end the day.

Saturday, Feb. 14 will see the final runs taken in the women's skeleton competition. Run 3 is slated for 12 p.m. ET, after which the top 20 will move on to the final run at 1:35 p.m.