From Winterberg, GER
(February 26, 2023) – Max Langenhan dominated the latter half of the 2022/2023 FIL World Cup season, and for one final time on the season showed that he was the hottest slider on tour.
Langenhan trailed Wolfgang Kindl going into the second heat by just .036, with a group of other sliders just behind them. On his second run Langenhan threw down the quickest run ever by a men’s singles athlete in Winterberg as he broke Felix Loch’s old track record with only Kindl to go.
Kindl needed to stay ahead of Langenhan if he wanted to finish third overall on the season. His start was clean but a couple of small wall hits dropped him not just out of the lead but off of the podium entirely as he finished fourth, giving Langenhan the victory over world champion Jonas Müller.
The gold medal for Langenhan was his sixth straight. He scored a medal in all seven races he entered in the 2022/2023 season after missing the first half of the year with a fractured wrist. Müller’s silver was his third in the last four races.
Like Müller, Nico Gleirscher moved up from well outside of the medals to finish third in the race to win his first medal since winning gold in the season opening races in Igls.
Kindl finished fourth, ahead of Dominik Fischnaller and Kristers Aparjods.
USA’s Tucker West struggled to find speed in Winterberg despite a clean first run and finished 16th.
Dominik Fischnaller entered the race needing to finish no more than two or three spots (depending on position) ahead of Felix Loch to win the overall World Cup title. He did that, as he finished two spots ahead of Loch to win the World Cup title, his first. Loch finished second overall, 45 points behind.
Despite missing five races, Max Langenhan’s dominance of the back half of the season was enough to propel him up to third in the overall points standings, 15 points ahead of Kindl in fourth.
David Glerischer finished the season fifth overall.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Max Langenhan | GER | 23 | 3.841 | 3.802 | 51.724 | 51.640 | 1:43.364 |
| 2 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 25 | 3.834 | 3.823 | 51.828 | 51.715 | 1:43.543 |
| 3 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 21 | 3.845 | 3.829 | 51.845 | 51.758 | 1:43.603 |
| 4 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 28 | 3.839 | 3.855 | 51.688 | 52.005 | 1:43.693 |
| 5 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 24 | 3.836 | 3.834 | 51.824 | 51.923 | 1:43.747 |
| 6 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 26 | 3.839 | 3.850 | 51.762 | 52.007 | 1:43.769 |
| 7 | Felix Loch | GER | 27 | 3.856 | 3.832 | 51.937 | 51.846 | 1:43.783 |
| 8 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 20 | 3.867 | 3.863 | 51.824 | 51.972 | 1:43.796 |
| 9 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 18 | 3.878 | 3.893 | 51.921 | 51.895 | 1:43.816 |
| 10 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 13 | 3.834 | 3.839 | 51.991 | 51.958 | 1:43.949 |
| 11 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 17 | 3.837 | 3.856 | 51.998 | 52.217 | 1:44.215 |
| 12 | David Nößler | GER | 12 | 3.844 | 3.844 | 52.354 | 52.273 | 1:44.627 |
| 13 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 11 | 3.892 | 3.907 | 52.277 | 52.437 | 1:44.714 |
| 14 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 22 | 3.915 | 3.906 | 52.396 | 52.364 | 1:44.760 |
| 15 | Alex Guffler | ITA | 10 | 3.874 | 3.911 | 52.352 | 52.541 | 1:44.893 |
| 16 | Tucker West | USA | 19 | 3.809 | 3.805 | 52.268 | 52.713 | 1:44.981 |
| 17 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 8 | 3.925 | 3.902 | 52.677 | 52.491 | 1:45.168 |
| 18 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 9 | 3.919 | 3.893 | 52.599 | 52.598 | 1:45.197 |
| 19 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 7 | 3.935 | 3.950 | 52.499 | 52.760 | 1:45.259 |
| 20 | Jozef Husla | SVK | 6 | 3.903 | 3.873 | 53.373 | 52.982 | 1:46.355 |
| 21 | Michael Lejsek | CZE | 3 | 3.946 | 3.924 | 53.288 | 53.394 | 1:46.682 |
| 22 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 5 | 3.888 | 3.867 | 52.773 | 54.141 | 1:46.914 |
| 23 | Aihemaiti Alabati | CHN | 4 | 3.889 | 3.909 | 53.156 | 53.942 | 1:47.098 |
| 24 | Ramus Moberg | SWE | 1 | 3.902 | 3.911 | 53.515 | 53.654 | 1:47.169 |
| 25 | Mirza Nikolajev | BIH | 15 | 3.949 | 3.925 | 53.938 | 53.579 | 1:47.517 |
| 26 | Arkadiusz Trojga | POL | 2 | 3.932 | 3.927 | 54.479 | 53.231 | 1:47.710 |
| 27 | Hamza Pleho | BIH | 16 | 4.007 | 3.988 | 55.035 | 54.841 | 1:49.876 |
| DNF | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 14 | 3.904 | DNF |
