Italy Wins Königssee Team Relay

From Königssee, GER

(Jan. 7, 2018) After a Saturday that saw the Germans win every available medal on the day, Sunday saw two major upsets in two races. First, Felix Loch lost on what should have been a glorified victory lap after making an uncharacteristic mistake in his second run. Then in the Team Relay the German doubles team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt made a mistake that led their team to be disqualified.

The Italian squad, led by Andrea Vötter, took the lead as the fourth team down and held on as every other team after them came down. Germany, as the final team of the day, came into the event as the overwhelming favorites. As women’s gold medalist Natalie Geisenberger and men’s bronze medalist Johannes Ludwig came down, gold seemed to be one easy ride down for the doubles team of Wendl & Arlt until the doubles squad left too soon. That early departure led to a disqualification of the German team, and a gold medal for Italy.

The United States finished second on the strength of a race-fastest women’s run by Summer Britcher, while Austria finished third with a great slide from Wolfgang Kindl.

Russia, Canada, and Latvia rounded out the top six.

Results: