Bota became the first representative of independent Latvia to win an Olympic medal in women's singles events. In 1980 in Lake Placid, Vera Zozulya became the champion, and Ingrid Amantova won bronze.
In Cortina d'Ampezzo, the gold went to Germany's Julia Taubitz, who was the fastest in the last three runs and finished ahead of Bota in the overall standings by 0.918 seconds. American Ashley Farquharson trailed Bota by just 0.039 seconds. Italian Verena Hofer took fourth place, finishing 0.063 seconds behind the leaders.
Kendi Aparede finished the Olympic competition in 16th place.
After the first run, Bota was in fifth place, showing the third fastest time in the second run, and after the first day, she was in third place overall. On Tuesday, in the third run, the Latvian moved up to second place and was 0.704 seconds behind Taubitz before the final start.
Farquharson, the closest pursuer, was just five hundredths of a second behind, while Hofer, in fourth place, was nearly one-tenth of a second behind, promising a tense battle for the medals. However, in the fourth run, Hofer only managed the seventh fastest time, while Farquharson finished fourth, achieving the highest speed in the lower part of the course.
During her decisive run, Bota lost her advantage over the American precisely in the lower section of the course, but at the finish, she still edged her out by four hundredths of a second overall.
Four years ago at the Olympics in Beijing, both Latvians finished in the second ten: Aparede finished 11th, while debutant Bota (then Vitola) took 18th place. Eliza Tiruma finished eighth at that time and has since retired.
