Janine Flock Shatters Records: First-Ever Skeleton Gold at Milano Cortina 2026 Ends 4-Olympic Quest

Austrian skeleton veteran Janine Flock has one hand on the Olympic medal that has eluded her for more than a decade after blazing to the halfway lead in the women’s singles event at Milano Cortina 2026. The 36-year-old opened Friday’s competition wearing bib 1 and immediately shattered the Cortina Sliding Centre record with a 57.22-second run, then backed it up with 57.26 in Heat 2 for a combined 1:54.48. Flock’s razor-thin 0.04-second cushion keeps three charging Germans at bay going into Saturday’s decisive heats. World champion Susanne Kreher sits second, former world titlist Jacqueline Pfeifer is third after briefly claiming the track record at 57.18, and defending Olympic champion Hannah Neise lurks in fourth. Britain’s Tabitha Stoecker and Freya Tarbit round out a tightly packed top six, while World Cup winner Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands languishes 13th, 1.38 seconds adrift. For Flock, Cortina represents a final shot at redemption. She was a heartbreaking fourth at PyeongChang 2018, slipping off the podium by two-hundredths after leading through three runs, and finished ninth in 2014 and 10th in 2022. “Bib number one was definitely a good choice,” she said after Friday’s masterclass. “Now the strong German women are chasing me—it will be very exciting.” Key to her resurgence has been a flawless line through Cortina’s technical labyrinth, paired with start speeds that belie her veteran status. Should she convert on Saturday, Flock would deliver Austria’s first women’s skeleton medal and end Germany’s stranglehold on the discipline. Schedule snapshot: • Heats 3 & 4: Saturday, 15 February, 18:00 local • Medals ceremony follows immediately on site Search-friendly takeaways: • Janine Flock track-record leader, women’s skeleton halfway • Milano Cortina 2026 skeleton finals live Saturday evening • Austrian seeks first Olympic medal after 2018 near-miss Fans can follow live timing and streaming via the official Milano Cortina 2026 channels as Flock battles Kreher, Pfeifer and Neise for gold.