The MotoGP flag waver that won 2026 Winter Olympic gold

The 2025 Moto3 German Grand Prix was concluded with a chequered flag waved by Julia Taubitz, who has now won a gold medal at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

The lightweight class race at the German MotoGP round last June saw David Munoz victorious for the second time in his career, the Spaniard winning ahead of his compatriots Max Quiles and eventual 2025 Moto3 World Champion Jose Antonio Rueda.

For Taubitz, who was the reigning women’s singles luge world champion coming into the Milano Cortina games, the Sachsenring race was an opportunity to be a part of the sport she loves as a fan, rather than as a competitor. 

Speaking to the official website of the International Luge Federation last November, Taubitz, who owns a motorcycle, admitted she’s “really tempted” to ride on the track.

“I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie,” she added.

Fast forward a few months to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in northern Italy and Taubitz has won her first Olympic gold medal in women’s singles luge competition.

Taubitz led her German teammate Merle Fraebel after the first two runs of the final on 9 February by just over half-a-tenth-of-a-second, but a mistake from Fraebel on the start of her third run saw Taubitz’s lead stretch to over 0.7 seconds with just the fourth and final run to go.

A mistake-free fourth run from Taubitz was all she needed to secure the Olympic gold medal, and that’s exactly what she delivered, winning a first Olympic gold medal by 0.918 seconds ahead of Latvia’s Elina Bota and USA’s Ashley Farquharson.

The gold is a first in Taubitz’s luge career, one that has also seen her take 16 singles’ World Cup wins as well as a total of 15 medals at the World Championships. It’s also a result that completes the sweep of the luge singles events for Germany at the 2026 Winter Games, after Max Langenhan took the men’s gold. 

Germany, then, with a grasp on luge similar to that which Spain exerts on Moto3.