Julia Taubitz is 1st and Merle Fraebel is 2nd at midway point of Olympic women's luge race

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — German teammates Julia Taubitz and Merle Fraebel have pulled away after the first two runs of the women's singles luge event at the Milan Cortina Olympics, opening up a sizable lead over the rest of the field going into Tuesday's medal-deciding heats.

Taubitz is the leader, finishing her two runs Monday in 1 minute, 45.188 seconds. Fraebel is in second with a time of 1:45.249, and it's a sizable gap from there to Latvia's Elina Bota — third in 1:45.683.

There are five sliders within two-tenths of a second of Bota's time, meaning the race for the bronze medal could get wild on Tuesday. Verena Hofer of Italy is fourth in 1:45.743, followed by Ashley Farquharson of the U.S. (1:45.796), Sandra Robatscher of Italy (1:45.801), Lisa Schulte of Austria (1:45.866) and Emily Fischnaller of the U.S. (1.45.872).

Anna Berreiter of Germany, the lone Olympic medalist in this field — she won silver at the 2022 Beijing Games — is ninth going into Tuesday. And Summer Britcher of the U.S., a two-time World Cup winner this season, is 12th after the opening two runs.

Taubitz is the reigning world champion. She's a six-time medalist in women's singles at the worlds — twice a winner, four times the runner-up.

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