2022 Beijing Olympics – Skeleton – Women Heat 3 – National Sliding Centre, Beijing, China – February 12, 2022. Hannah Neise of Germany in action. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
February 12, 2022
By David Kirton
YANQING, China (Reuters) -Germany’s anthem may be the most-played song northwest of Beijing after Hannah Neise won the women’s skeleton on Saturday, making it an astonishing six sliding golds out of six for her country.
German dominance has fast become the norm in the Yanqing hills, but the skeleton race also brought firsts, as silver-winning Australian Jaclyn Narracott became the first female slider outside of Europe and North America to claim a medal in the sport.
Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands took her country’s first skeleton medal with the bronze.
Skeleton sliders use slight tweaks of muscle to steer as they plummet head first down a twisting ice track at speeds up to 130 km an hour.
Narracott had led at the half-way mark, but with eight other contenders within 0.53 seconds of her time, the door to the medals was still open.
Suited in iguana-like yellow and green, Narracott soared and swooped round the “Flying Snow Dragon” pearl-white track, barely brushing its sloped sides in her two runs.
But Germany’s Hannah Neise came diving down after her like an angry hornet in yellow and black. She ricocheted against the walls towards the end, but sheer momentum carried her ahead, shaving a massive 0.59 seconds off the previous track record.
The last run of the night gave Neise a total time of 4:07.62, an enormous 0.62 of a second ahead of the Australian and 0.84 of a second ahead of the Dutchwoman.
It follows her compatriot Christopher Grotheer’s gold in the men’s event on Friday, Germany’s first ever in the men’s event.
(Reporting by David Kirton; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Source: One America News Network
