Germans Laura Nolte and Johannes Lochner dethroned the reigning Olympic and world champions to open the world bobsled championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, this weekend.
Nolte, the Olympic two-woman champion driver, won the four-run monobob by four tenths of a second over American Kaillie Humphries, who won the first world title in the event in 2021 and the first Olympic title in the event in 2022. Another German, Lisa Buckwitz, took bronze.
In the two-man, Lochner became the first driver to beat countryman Francesco Friedrich in an Olympic or world championships event since 2016, ending Friedrich’s record 12-event streak at global championships between two-man and four-man.
Friedrich, defeated by 49 hundredths, saw his streak of seven consecutive world two-man titles also snapped. Friedrich has been hampered recently by a muscle injury from sprint training in late December, with Lochner winning the last four World Cup two-man races.
Lochner, 32, won his first outright global title after seven Olympic or world silvers, plus a shared four-man gold with Friedrich in 2017.
Swiss Michael Vogt drove to bronze, one hundredth behind Friedrich. Geoff Gadbois and Martin Christofferson filled the top American sled in 18th.
Americans Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton were the last non-Germans to win a world two-man title in 2012.
Bobsled worlds finish next weekend with the two-woman and four-man events.
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