From Igls, AUT
(January 14, 2024) – Something had to give in Igls: Austria has been dominant on their home ice over the past few years, but Germany’s Max Langenhan hadn’t lost a race in a full year. Something was going to have to change.
Langenhan had what looked to be a pretty okay slide in his first heat, but found himself behind a trio of Austrians in the first heat, with Müller leading handily over teammates Nico and David Gleirscher after Müller set a track record in that first run.
In the second heat Langenhan once again had an otherwise clean slide as he took the lead from Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods, but would need help from the three Austrians if he wanted to continue a year-long winning streak on the FIL World Cup tour.
David Gleirscher gave Langenhan a glimmer of hope as Gleirscher finished behind Langenhan to guarantee that the German would continue a streak of podiums, but Nico Gleirscher officially broke Langenhan’s streak as he took the lead with Müller to go to solidify a gold medal for Austria.
Müller was the final man down in the race, and while he was not able to break his own track record set in the first heat, his second slide was the quickest of that heat as he won by .326, an eternity of time in Igls.
The gold medal for Müller was his first on the World Cup since Lake Placid in 2019, while his last win in any race was during the 2023 world championships.
First off the podium was Aparjods, while David Gleirscher finished fifth.
The race in Igls was a bit of a mixed bag for the United States. Jonny Gustafson scored a ninth place finish with two consistent runs. Teammate Tucker West had a mistake in his first run that left him in 19th after the first heat, but a cleaned up second run moved him up to 14th.
Matthew Greiner and Hunter Harris, both in their first season on the senior circuit, finished 27th and 28th, respectively.
Like West, Alex Ferlazzo moved up with a good second run, from 14th to 11th.
After four races plus a Sprint World Cup race in Lake Placid, Max Langenhan is the obvious overall World Cup leader, 90 points ahead of Jonas Müller, with Nico Gleirscher in third. Kristers Aparjods and Dominik Fischnaller sit in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 25 | 5.367 | 5.365 | 49.288 | 49.367 | 1:38.655 |
| 2 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 26 | 5.400 | 5.410 | 49.469 | 49.512 | 1:38.981 |
| 3 | Max Langenhan | GER | 28 | 5.430 | 5.402 | 49.599 | 49.484 | 1:39.083 |
| 4 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 29 | 5.413 | 5.408 | 49.618 | 49.536 | 1:39.154 |
| 5 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 19 | 5.430 | 5.431 | 49.564 | 49.635 | 1:39.199 |
| 6 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 27 | 5.471 | 5.458 | 49.639 | 49.609 | 1:39.248 |
| 7 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 30 | 5.389 | 5.423 | 49.628 | 49.680 | 1:39.308 |
| 8 | Felix Loch | GER | 20 | 5.394 | 5.398 | 49.671 | 49.668 | 1:39.339 |
| 9 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 22 | 5.446 | 5.442 | 49.909 | 49.898 | 1:39.807 |
| 10 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 9 | 5.426 | 5.488 | 49.951 | 50.069 | 1:40.020 |
| 11 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 21 | 5.424 | 5.438 | 50.118 | 49.993 | 1:40.111 |
| 12 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 17 | 5.419 | 5.406 | 50.024 | 50.102 | 1:40.126 |
| 13 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 16 | 5.492 | 5.476 | 50.104 | 50.095 | 1:40.199 |
| 14 | Tucker West | USA | 23 | 5.400 | 5.383 | 50.208 | 50.001 | 1:40.209 |
| 15 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 8 | 5.498 | 5.507 | 50.128 | 50.200 | 1:40.328 |
| 16 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 2 | 5.496 | 5.495 | 50.141 | 50.191 | 1:40.332 |
| 17 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 15 | 5.518 | 5.528 | 50.133 | 50.211 | 1:40.344 |
| 18 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 18 | 5.542 | 5.544 | 50.183 | 50.189 | 1:40.372 |
| 19 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 13 | 5.438 | 5.443 | 50.090 | 50.397 | 1:40.487 |
| 20 | David Nößler | GER | 24 | 5.468 | 5.451 | 50.299 | 50.222 | 1:40.521 |
| 21 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 14 | 5.465 | 5.463 | 50.254 | 50.296 | 1:40.550 |
| 22 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 10 | 5.482 | 5.472 | 50.571 | 50.229 | 1:40.800 |
| 23 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 11 | 5.484 | 5.503 | 50.242 | 50.602 | 1:40.844 |
| 24 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 12 | 5.412 | 5.410 | 50.573 | 50.309 | 1:40.882 |
| 25 | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 3 | 5.491 | 5.497 | 50.352 | 50.555 | 1:40.907 |
| 26 | Seiya Kobayashi | JPN | 4 | 5.554 | 5.536 | 50.674 | 50.580 | 1:41.254 |
| 27 | Matthew Greiner | USA | 7 | 5.554 | 5.608 | 50.489 | 50.795 | 1:41.284 |
| 28 | Hunter Harris | USA | 5 | 5.560 | 5.550 | 50.764 | 50.585 | 1:41.349 |
| 29 | Mirza Nikolajev | BIH | 6 | 5.590 | 5.518 | 50.818 | 50.599 | 1:41.417 |
| 30 | Danyil Martsinovskyi | UKR | 1 | 5.556 | 5.560 | 50.777 | 51.097 | 1:41.874 |
