Nolte wins Olympic bobsled gold, Humphries Armbruster wins 6th medal, Meyers Taylor mulls her future

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Germany's Laura Nolte didn't let this lead get away. She's golden, again.

And Kaillie Humphries Armbruster of the U.S. has a new favorite number — six, as in the number of Olympic bobsled medals now in her collection.

Nolte is now the back-to-back two-woman Olympic bobsled champion, holding off teammate Lisa Buckwitz to grab gold at the Milan Cortina Games on Saturday night.

Nolte — the winner of the last four World Cup two-woman titles — cemented her status as the sport's current queen, teaming with Deborah Levi to win her second consecutive two-woman gold medal by finishing four runs in 3 minutes, 48.46 seconds. Levi was in her sled for the golden ride in 2022 as well.

''It means a lot, and even to defend it together as a team again is so cool," Nolte said. "It was such a fun race and we had to keep our nerves together until the very last corner, until the very last run, but it was amazing.''

Buckwitz, with Neele Schuten in her sled, was second in 3:48.99. Humphries Armbruster and Jasmine Jones — two mothers in the same sled for the U.S. — finished third in 3:49.21. It was the sixth Olympic medal for Humphries Armbruster, tying monobob gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor for the most by any woman in the sport's history.

''Just knowing Jasmine was behind me, knowing what this meant for us as a team, I really wanted it for her more than for myself," Humphries Armbruster said. "She gave everything she did and entrusted me to do the same. That's what teamwork's really about. I couldn't have done this with anybody else, and I didn't want to do it with anybody else.''

''It's been a hell of a journey. I can't even put into words what it's meant to be able to do this for so long,'' a teary Meyers Taylor said. ''To be able to represent my country and be able to slide ... I don't know if this is the end. It kind of feels like it is.''

Also for the U.S., Kaysha Love — who has been dealing with a hamstring issue for much of the season and had it flare up again in Italy — and Azaria Hill finished fifth in 3:49.71.

''Azaria and I haven't been doing this long enough to be anything other than proud,'' Love said. ''This is only my third season driving. It's only her third season pushing. The people we're up against have 20 years of experience. I want to be frustrated because I think that we expect greatness out of each other.''

Meyers Taylor and Jadin O'Brien, who were doomed by a second-heat skid at the top of the track Friday night, got a few spots back in the standings Saturday and finished tied for seventh in 3:50.49.

Germany now has six bobsled medals in these Olympics, while the U.S. has three and the rest of the world has zero. The divide might get bigger on Sunday in the final sliding event of the Milan Cortina Games; Germany, which already swept the two-man race, is in position to do the same thing in four-man after Saturday's opening two heats of that competition.

''We knew we had to get one,'' U.S. coach Chris Fogt said.

The two-woman race was basically for the bronze going into the final run.

Nolte — who had the lead, albeit a much smaller one, going into the final heat of the monobob competition that Meyers Taylor ended up winning — led Buckwitz by 0.35 seconds going into the last heat. Buckwitz's lead over Humphries Armbruster was 0.19 seconds, and Humphries Armbruster was only 0.09 seconds up on Germany's Kim Kalicki in the race for the bronze.

Kalicki's final time: 3:49.36. It wasn't enough to catch Humphries Armbruster, who hopped out of the sled and wrapped herself and Jones in the American flag, knowing the medal was theirs.

Humphries Armbruster's updated Olympic medal count: three golds, three bronzes.

Meyers Taylor is 41, Humphries Armbruster is 40. Meyers Taylor is a mother of two, Humphries Armbruster has one son, and both women are talking about how they would like to add another baby to their families.

That means Saturday night might have been the last on the Olympic stage for them — and maybe on any sliding stage.

''I hope everyone gives E the credit, the honor, the glory that she deserves, because she laid it out there," O'Brien said of her sledmate. ''No one really knows what goes on behind the scenes, but I can tell you that this woman put her blood, sweat and tears into this sport.''

It was the 177th race — counting World Cups, world championships, the short-lived monobob World Series and the Olympics — for Meyers Taylor at the major international level. She has 78 medals from those races, six coming in the Olympics, and was a winner either as a driver or pusher in three different decades.

And for Humphries Armbruster, who won three Olympic medals for Canada and now has three more for the U.S., the numbers are even more gaudy: 105 medals in 218 major international races, with 49 of them victories.

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