Women’s monobob was the first of the bobsled competitions to begin at Milan Cortina 2026, and midway through there’s a multi-athlete fight for gold. 

Leading the pack after two runs is Germany’s Laura Nolte, who started first as the No. 1-ranked sled entering the Games. Nolte took that first run as an invitation to set a track record, laying down a 59.44 that none of the other 24 athletes could best.

RESULTS

Starting 10th on Run 1, Elana Meyers Taylor laid down a 59.49 to go into 2nd place, 0.05 seconds off the lead. The defending silver medalist is the lead U.S. sled after two runs and sits just over two tenths of a second out of gold medal position.

Defending Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries started fourth and was the first athlete to challenge Nolte when she set a time 0.34 seconds behind the German. On her second run, she improved by over a tenth of a second and sits in bronze medal position midway through.

Meyers Taylor and Humphries are separated by just 0.09 seconds in the final two medal positions.

Nobody could come close to Nolte and Humphries on Run 1 until Kaysha Love and Meyers Taylor dug their sleds into the starting grooves. 

Competing in her second Games but first in the monobob, Love had a monster first run to settle into 3rd but clattered the wall on Run 2 and lost almost a second. The 2025 monobob World Champion sits in 5th but will know what to correct to make the time back up on Monday.

Nolte, the three Americans and Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler were the only five to set a sub-one-minute time on the opening run. Hasler is in 4th at the halfway point.

Athletes seemed to struggle for grip on their sleds early on, as world No. 2 Bree Walker of Australia and No. 5 Katrin Beierl of Austria each skidded and tagged the wall multiple times across their first run. Walker sits in 6th and Beierl is down in 13th midway through the competition.

The first bobsled medals will come after Runs 3 and 4 on women's monobob on Monday, Feb. 16. Run 3 will begin at 1 p.m. ET and the final run will follow at 3:05 p.m.