Tsyganova wins skeleton gold ahead of German duo

The 16-year-old took first place with a combined time of 2 minutes, 22.50 seconds, beating the German duo of Josefa Schellmoser and Sissi Schroedl into the silver and bronze medal positions respectively.

“I still do not feel like I won,” Tsyganova said. “I still do not feel like I have a gold medal around my neck. I’m not very satisfied with the runs so that is why I am not very happy.”

For Germany the mood was much more upbeat despite missing out on first place. Their impressive performances at the St. Moritz Olympia Bob Run have so far delivered eight medals in the sliding events.

Much of this success has been attributed to the strong team ethic within the German squad at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

“Before the start we always do a handclap to wish each other good luck,” Schellmoser said. “That worked out really well today. Sissi is a very good friend of mine. I am so proud of her.”

Having spent the past week cheering on her Germany teammates, Schroedl admitted that the waiting had created one or two jittery moments.

“I watched the speed skating very often,” she said. “There’s a classmate of mine there. It was fun but I was getting nervous a little bit for my competition.”

Inspired by watching skeleton on TV, Schroedl immediately decided the sport was “cool” and set about finding her way on to the track.

“I kept on watching and searching the internet,” she said. “Then we moved to a town where the sport was possible. I was 10 years old and too young.

“I started summer training a year later and kept on doing the sport. This is one of the greatest moments of my life so far.”

With her first taste of Winter Youth Olympic success, Schroedl is cautiously turning her attention to the forthcoming Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

“I still have to get all of this into my head,” she said. “I say, ‘You never know what’s going to happen’ but of course I’ll keep on training.”