Why German bobsleigh prodigy Laura Nolte is one to watch at Beijing 2022
The German bobsleigh athlete went from rookie to Youth Olympic champion in one year, and here we look at five other facts you may not have known about her.
Bobsleigh
Laura Nolte is a rare kind of bobsleigh talent.
The German first tried the sport in 2015, and just one year later she was crowned women’s monobob Youth Olympic Games champion in Lillehammer.
Ever since that moment, the former athletics star has had one goal on her mind: Competing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
However, Germany is blessed with a plethora of bobsleigh talent and competing against the likes of Stephanie Schneider, Kim Kalicki and Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka for one of their nation’s three Olympic berths means there is little room for error.
In 2021, Nolte won the Junior World Championships and senior European Championships in the two-woman sled, before sealing double bronze at the World Championships.
But how well do you know the 22-year-old, who is as much of a whizz in the classroom as she is on the ice?
1 - Former track sprinter
Originally hailing from the Ruhr region of Western Germany, Nolte’s first sporting passion was athletics.
But with the famous IBSF World Cup track in Winterberg nearby, it wasn’t long before bobsleigh scouts persuaded her to come and try their sport.
“I had my first training session in August 2015 and it was a perfect fit right away,” she told BSZonline.
“So good, in fact, that my coach asked me if I would like to take part in the Youth Olympics. I had to get out of school for three weeks and also qualify for the competition, but that's exactly what I did and in Norway I surprisingly took home victory in the monobob.”
Nolte is in good company as a cross-over track athletics to bobsleigh.
Lolo Jones and Ryan Bailey have made the switch for Team USA in recent times, while the other three members of Nolte’s two-woman training squad in Deborah Levi, Viktoria Donicke and Cynthia Kwofie, also transitioned from athletics.
2 - Laura Nolte on ‘Defeating the curse’
Despite the Unna-born athlete’s meteoric rise in the sport, she has had some hurdles to overcome.
In the 2020 season she suffered several bad falls on the intimidating Alternberg track.
But showing courage and determination, she returned this year to claim bronze medals in the two-woman and monobob events at the 2021 World Championships.
“That was important from a psychological point of view,” she told Veltins-eisarena.de.
“I completed the four trips in Altenberg without a fall. A year earlier, at the World Cup on the same track, I had extreme problems. If you will, I defeated the curse.”
3 - Business psychology graduate
While it is common-place for professional athletes around the world to sacrifice further education in the pursuit of their sporting careers, Nolte broke that trend.
In 2021 she graduated with a degree in business and psychology from the Ruhr University in Bochum.
And she wasn’t given an easy ride for being a European and Junior World Champion either. While many of her contemporaries were partying when they weren’t studying, she was training.
“When I went to university in the morning, I would train afterwards and then sometimes vice versa,” she revealed. “In addition, I would go to physiotherapy twice a week. I am also a sports soldier and for that I always have to do a course in April.”
“The winter semester and bobsleigh season would run roughly parallel, meaning I was rarely at home due to my competition season. But the lecturers knew that and allowed me to catch up on my work at a later date.”
But the athlete-scholar isn’t done there! She’s already targetted a Masters degree in the near future.
4 - Sweet tooth
Calorie-burning cold weather, combined with the relentless training regimes mean that winter athletes can certainly get away with a few sweet treats.
True to form, Nolte even lists ‘Chocolate addict’ in her Instagram bio!
Other pictures reveal she also has a penchant for ice cream.
Before anyone gets the idea that they can become a world-class athlete eating chocolate and ice cream, it should be noted that the majority of Nolte’s meals are healthy and delicious-looking like this one below..
5 - Dancing queen
Despite being a model student and sporting prodigy, Nolte’s social media also sugests that she doesn’t take life too seriously.
Her bobsleigh teammates seem more like sisters, and they regularly take time out from training to work on dance routines or go paddle boarding.
Could this be a victory dance in the making?