Eight years ago, Janine Flock faced the worst kind of Olympic heartbreak. It was at PyeongChang 2018 that she came so agonizingly close to gold, leading after three runs before seeing a medal slip out of her hands on her final run. She finished 4th, 0.02 seconds from bronze.

After that day it took trips to two more Olympic Games, a track record and four near-flawless runs at Cortina Sliding Centre — but Flock finally achieved her long-awaited Olympic glory with an incredible gold medal on Saturday. She’s now part of history, becoming the first Austrian woman to ever win an Olympic skeleton medal. 

RESULTS

“We wrote history, right? It’s incredible," Flock told reporters following her win. “I’m totally emotional. I still can’t believe it. I’m very proud, very happy and very thankful that we achieved that."

Just as it was in the men’s final on Thursday, Team Germany went 2-3 on the podium with Susanne Kreher taking silver and Jacqueline Pfeifer earning bronze. 

Kreher made an impact at her Olympic debut, edging out her teammate by just over a tenth of a second. Pfeifer claimed her second Olympic medal after her silver at PyeongChang 2018.

That meant neither of the participating medalists from Beijing 2022 could repeat — defending gold medalist Hannah Neise finished a long 0.71 seconds off of a medal position in 4th, and Beijing bronze medalist Kimberly Bos finished a distant 13th.

British debutant trio Tabitha Stoecker, Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman built on their strong Day 1 showings to finish 5th, 7th and 9th, respectively. 

Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro each had an Olympic Games to remember. Curtis, 37, achieved her best Olympic result with 12th. She finished 21st at Beijing 2022. 

Ro capped off her first Games by making up two places from Day 1 to finish 15th. 

Skeleton competition will conclude Sunday, Feb. 15 with the all-new mixed team event. Ro is set to compete along with Austin Florian, after the two saw success in the event on the world cup circuit.