Bobsleigh pilot Kim Kaliki sets course for Winter Olympics in Beijing

DThat passenger’s seat is not yet firmly provided. Kim Kaliki will test four different brakemen in the first few weeks of the new World Cup season to determine who should race through the Olympic ice track in Yanking with Wiesbaden’s bobsled pilot in February. Last weekend in Innsbruck, Magdeburg’s Annabel Gallander sat behind the 24-year-old. Winterbergers could both be “definitely satisfied” (Kaliki), with second place behind Laura Nolte and Leonie Feibig. Feibig will turn into Kaliki’s sledge in the second race at the same track in Austria on Sunday.

This winter everything is set to be at the Games in China and then ahead. For German players, this means more cooperation than competition. They are only allowed to travel to Asia with three teams if they come in at least second place than Canada and Russia. In addition to the usual two-person performance, results also play a part in the monoboob. In this, says Kaliki, athletes from other countries have gained more and more experience. “That’s why we exchange ideas intensely.”

Your own twelfth at the start of the season in Igls should be after better and better tours. “We haven’t found the optimal setting yet,” Kaliki says. After all, you’ve been tackling this new challenge in the Olympic program since last season. Moreover, as a light weight, which weighs only 74 kg, it is not only too tedious to get the bobsleigh, which weighs as little as 163 kg as a two-person, in motion on its own.

To reach the limit, you also need to put extra load on the device. “So I’m doubly at a loss.” More stable for two-man driving. “The fact that you don’t have anything on the rear axle makes it easier for you to get out of the curve all at once,” Kaliki says. However, consistency and performance improves with every test and every race.

“It was one of the most intense competitions”

Developing a good driving experience and handling pressure with a strong set of nerves is what differentiates the former athlete. In bobsleigh, in which the former hurdler first tried her hand in 2015, she was twice on the steering ropes and quickly achieved success. Two years after joining the team, Pratibha was the under-23 world champion for the first time, and the police commissioner finished her first two World Cup competitions in the big players in 2020 and 2021 with a silver.

The athlete from TuS Eintracht Wiesbaden never allowed falls and injuries to slow himself down. But a battered flexor almost rendered the 2019 World Cup debutante unable to participate in the series. After good preparation till then, Kaliki had to take a break from July due to injury and was only 100 percent fit again after ten weeks. In the selection on the future Olympic track, she was half a second behind Stephanie Schneider before the last run. Then he stumbled in the final run and snatched the third and last ticket from under the nose of Oberwiesenthalerin.

After the “super nerve-wracking” decision, Kaliki said, “It was the most intense competition I’ve ever experienced.” Not only because of the restrictions on spectators due to the pandemic, the foreshadowing of what to expect in games in one place. The Olympic track in Beijing, which is located in the Chinese capital’s ski area, is “in great demand”. You are not in danger of falling on the descents, but you can lose a lot of time in some corners. “Even if you’re in first place for three runs, if you hit it, you can still come back in eighth.” Kim Kaliki says she’s never seen anything like this on any other track.