Singles, Women

Gerda Weissensteiner had become the first Italian to win the Women’s World Championship in 1993 and arrived in Lillehammer with the intention of matching Erica Außendorfer-Lechner’s 1968 heroics and taking the title back to Italy and more particularly the Sud-Tirol. To do so she would have to turn back challenges from Austria and Germany as both countries could pick an entire squad of medal contenders.

In the end the great shock was the ease of Weissensteiner’s victory as she won all four runs and finished with a lead of three quarters of a second. This margin was greater than the combined winning margins of the previous three Olympics. Behind her Susi Erdmann of Germany traded up from bronze in 1992 to silver this time around and Andrea Tagwerker of Austria, who had faltered on the last day in Albertville, held on to claim bronze. Weissensteiner and Erdmann followed identical paths in their winter sports career. After competing against each other in the luge competitions of 1992, 1994 and 1998 they both switched to bobsleigh and were Olympic rivals again in 2002 and 2006.