Taubitz extends Germany's Olympic luge dominance with gold, Farquharson gets bronze for US

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Ashley Farquharson crossed the finish line, looked at the giant scoreboard at the end of the track and then immediately began to cry.

A happy cry, at that. A very happy cry.

USA Luge has its seventh Olympic medal — one that came from a slider who never found her way to the medal stand until this season.

Farquharson, who started sliding as an after-school activity when she was a little kid in Park City, Utah, won the bronze medal in women's singles at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday night.

“It really didn't feel real,” Farquharson said. “And then everyone meeting me on the ice, and the whirlwind it's been since then has really cemented it. For a couple seconds when I was coming up the outrun, I was like, ‘that’s not real.'”

Oh, it's real.

Germany's Julia Taubitz rolled to the gold medal, winning by almost a full second, a monster margin in luge. Latvia's Elena Bota was second, matching her country's best Olympic result.

“This was the dream,” Taubitz said. “And now the dream comes true.”

And then there was Farquharson, who didn't medal in any of her first 54 World Cup races before finally breaking through this season. There was a bronze on her home track in Park City, then a silver on USA Luge's official home in Lake Placid, New York, proof that she could finish among the best.

“When I was going to bed last night, I was like, ‘I’ve just got to act like it's Park City, believe nobody can beat me and that I am the fastest on this track,'” Farquharson said.

She wasn't the fastest, but she was more than good enough. She's an Olympic medalist. Farquharson's ability will never be questioned again.

“Super happy for Ashley, very happy for USA Luge,” longtime U.S. teammate Emily Fischnaller said. “I mean, we are the ones on the sled, but there’s a team behind us with everything that we do. So, that’s just a testament to all the work that everyone has put into it.”

Fischnaller was 12th for the Americans in 3:33.035, falling from fifth after three runs with some trouble in her final heat. Summer Britcher of the U.S., a two-time World Cup race winner this season and now a four-time Olympian, was 14th in 3:33.553.

“I’m proud of the work that I put in to get here,” Britcher said. “A year ago, no one would have guessed that I would have even had a chance at a medal, so to be standing here heartbroken is a privilege.”

Taubitz got the 17th gold medal awarded in women’s singles luge, and the 13th that went to a German slider. The Olympic singles gold medal was the only thing missing on Taubitz’s resume.

She’s a two-time women’s singles world champion, a five-time World Cup overall champion, a winner of more than 30 World Cup races and none of that takes into account how she has piled up medals as part of Germany’s near-unbeatable team relays.

And now, the biggest medal. The shiniest one, too. She’s the Olympic champion, taking over that crown from now-retired German great Natalie Geisenberger, who won the last three gold medals.

“I started crying in the last corner,” Taubitz said. “I knew the run was good.”

Taubitz's time was 3 minutes, 30.625 seconds — nearly a full second ahead of Bota, who got the silver. Farquharson wound up with the third singles medal ever for USA Luge at the Olympics and matching the best finish by an American women’s slider.

Chris Mazdzer got silver in men’s singles at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and Erin Hamlin got the women’s bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Farquharson remembers watching Hamlin win that medal from her eighth-grade math class.

“It was incredible,” Farquharson said.

Taubitz and German teammate Merle Fraebel were so far ahead of the field entering Tuesday that the only way they wouldn't win gold and silver was if someone committed a huge mistake.

Fraebel did exactly that.

It took about one second for her gold chance — or any medal chance — to be gone. Fraebel badly botched the start of her third run, bouncing off the wall and ping-ponging her way down the rest of the track. She went from second entering the third run to 10th entering the last, way out of medal contention, and finished eighth.

And that meant, for the fourth run, Taubitz didn't even have to get into fourth gear. With a lead of 0.704 seconds going into the final heat, there was no doubt that Taubitz would get gold.

“It was a lot of hard work the last 3 1/2 years,” Taubitz said. “I'm really happy and thankful.”