Slovakia’s quiet qualification: a monobob ticket to Milan

In the louder corners of winter sport, Olympic qualification often arrives with fanfare. Slovakia’s entry into bobsleigh for the 2026 Winter Games has come more discreetly — but no less decisively.

When the Winter Olympics open in northern Italy next mont, Slovakia will be represented in women’s monobob by Viktória Čerňanská, a 23-year-old pilot whose season has been built not on headline podiums but on accumulation: points gathered patiently across continents and competitions, according to press agency reports.

Her Olympic place was effectively secured in Lake Placid, a venue steeped in sliding-sport history. There, on the demanding North American Cup circuit, Čerňanská finished fourth and fifth in two monobob races — results that confirmed what her season-long consistency had already suggested. Across the series she recorded one fourth place, two fifths and three sixths, enough to move beyond the reach of rivals chasing qualification.

The numbers matter. In the combined ranking of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), Čerňanská currently sits 22nd — safely inside the quota. Only 25 women will line up in the monobob event at the Games, and Slovakia is entitled to a single place. Formal confirmation will arrive when the qualification window closes in mid-January, but the arithmetic is already settled.

This will be her second Olympic appearance. At the Beijing Games four years ago she finished 17th, an outcome that now reads less like a ceiling than a starting point. Since then, her progress has been incremental rather than spectacular: a lone World Cup start this season in Sigulda, Latvia, produced a 14th-place finish, while most of her decisive work came away from the sport’s brightest lights.

There may yet be more to come. Alongside brakeman Lucia Mokrášová, Čerňanská remains in contention for a place in the two-woman bobsleigh, where their ranking currently also sits within the qualification zone.

The 2026 Winter Olympics — officially the Winter Olympics Milano Cortina 2026 — will open on 6 February and run until the 22nd, followed by the Paralympic Games in March. Events will be spread between Milan and several Alpine venues, a decentralised model designed to curb costs.

For bobsleigh, the focus will be Cortina d’Ampezzo, the storied resort that has long traded on its glamour as much as its pistes.

Organisers expect around 90,000 accredited guests during the Olympics and a further 40,000 for the Paralympics.