From Lillehammer, NOR
(January 26, 2024) – The IBSF World Cup made its way to Lillehammer for the first time in two decades for men’s skeleton, and in that return Germany stood tall ahead of everyone else.
Reigning Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer sat fourth after the first heat, a tenth of a second behind teammates Felix Seibel and Axel Jungk, who sat tied for the lead. China’s Zheng Yin sat third as the only athlete reasonably within distance to break up a podium sweep for Germany.
In the second heat Grotheer was the first off among the contenders and set a downtime that was .03 quicker than his first run in a heat where most athletes had been a bit slower in their second effort.
Yin was next off the top and improved his start by .05 but couldn’t quite find his form from the first heat as he fell behind Grotheer despite what was otherwise a relatively clean run.
The final two men down were Jungk, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, and Seibel. Jungk’s slide nearly matched Grotheer’s but the speed just wasn’t quite there for Jungk. His downtime was .18 off of Grotheer’s second heat pace as he fell to second with just Seibel to go.
Seibel, making just his fifth World Cup start, was a bit quicker off the top but wasn’t able to match his first heat’s effort. Despite that, the young German showed poise and enough form to hold onto a podium finish as he crossed the finish line in third, giving Grotheer the victory.
Grotheer’s win was his sixth on the World Cup circuit and 20th World Cup medal overall. All six of his victories have come on different tracks: Altenberg, Igls, Park City, Winterberg, Yanqing, and now Lillehammer.
For Jungk, the silver medal was his first podium of the season.
Yin finished fourth, a career-best after a few top five finishes, while Felix Keisinger took fifth as the fourth and final German.
China’s Wengang Yan moved up from seven in the first heat to finish sixth, just ahead of Denmark’s Rasmus Johansen who scored a career-best finish in seventh.
Austin Florian led the way for the United States with a 15th place finish after entering the heat tied for 17th. His second push was .01 off of the old start record and .12 faster than his first. Dan Barefoot entered the second heat in a tie for 23rd, and broke that tie and then moved up few spots to finish 20th. Teammate Hunter Williams was the first slider off the track in heavy snow conditions and finished 29th.
Blake Enzie finished 19th for Canada, a season’s best finish on the World Cup tour. Teammate Ryan Kuehn made his World Cup debut as the last slider off of 37 and finished 27th, just .18 out of the top 25.
Great Britain couldn’t quite find the pace they were hoping for in Lillehammer but still left Norway with a pair of sliders in the top ten. Matt Weston had a quick second run and moved up from 12th into the top ten with a eighth place finish. Weston’s top ten was at the expense of Jacob Salibury, who fell behind him but held onto a tenth place effort after the first heat. Craig Thompson finished 12th, while Marcus Wyatt popped the groove in the first heat and finished 31st.
Malaysia’s Jonathan Yaw made his World Cup debut a year after his World Championships debut and finished 34th.
After five races on the IBSF World Cup men’s skeleton tour, Christopher Grotheer leads Seunggi Jung by 65 points. Matt Weston sits third,with Zheng Yin and Craig Thompson rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 13 | 4.81 | 4.78 | 51.44 | 51.41 | 1:42.85 |
| 2 | Axel Jungk | GER | 19 | 4.80 | 4.79 | 51.34 | 51.59 | 1:42.93 |
| 3 | Felix Seibel | GER | 18 | 4.84 | 4.82 | 51.34 | 51.61 | 1:42.95 |
| 4 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 4 | 4.71 | 4.66 | 51.43 | 51.63 | 1:43.06 |
| 5 | Felix Keixinger | GER | 6 | 4.74 | 4.68 | 51.50 | 51.61 | 1:43.11 |
| 6 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 17 | 4.74 | 4.72 | 51.53 | 51.70 | 1:43.23 |
| 7 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 21 | 4.83 | 4.78 | 51.52 | 51.74 | 1:43.26 |
| 8 | Matt Weston | GBR | 9 | 4.75 | 4.72 | 51.69 | 51.58 | 1:43.27 |
| 9 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 10 | 4.65 | 4.60 | 51.56 | 51.72 | 1:43.28 |
| 10 | Jacob Salisbury | GBR | 20 | 4.69 | 4.71 | 51.66 | 51.73 | 1:43.39 |
| 11 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 5 | 4.76 | 4.72 | 51.68 | 51.74 | 1:43.42 |
| 12 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 12 | 4.74 | 4.74 | 51.86 | 51.85 | 1:43.71 |
| 13 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 15 | 4.81 | 4.83 | 51.77 | 51.99 | 1:43.76 |
| 14 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 27 | 4.94 | 4.87 | 51.90 | 51.92 | 1:43.82 |
| 15 | Austin Florian | USA | 22 | 4.77 | 4.65 | 51.96 | 51.92 | 1:43.88 |
| 16 | Manuel Schwärzer | ITA | 25 | 4.80 | 4.81 | 51.90 | 52.03 | 1:43.93 |
| 17 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 24 | 4.84 | 4.82 | 51.99 | 52.10 | 1:44.09 |
| 18 | Florian Auer | AUT | 26 | 4.94 | 4.89 | 52.00 | 52.12 | 1:44.12 |
| 19 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 31 | 4.78 | 4.77 | 52.03 | 52.11 | 1:44.14 |
| 20 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 23 | 4.91 | 4.88 | 52.13 | 52.10 | 1:44.23 |
| 21 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 14 | 4.71 | 4.65 | 52.14 | 52.15 | 1:44.29 |
| 22 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 16 | 5.01 | 5.00 | 52.13 | 52.30 | 1:44.43 |
| 23 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 11 | 4.92 | 4.94 | 52.09 | 52.41 | 1:44.50 |
| 24 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 3 | 5.00 | 4.96 | 51.96 | 53.14 | 1:45.10 |
| 25 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 8 | 4.70 | 5.55 | 51.57 | 53.59 | 1:45.16 |
| 26 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 28 | 4.82 | 52.20 | |||
| 27 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 37 | 4.74 | 52.32 | |||
| 28 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 2 | 5.09 | 52.33 | |||
| 29 | Hunter Williams | USA | 1 | 4.81 | 52.37 | |||
| 30 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 34 | 4.96 | 52.57 | |||
| 31 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 7 | 5.02 | 52.62 | |||
| 32 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 29 | 4.82 | 52.95 | |||
| 33 | Vladyslav Polyvach | POL | 32 | 4.97 | 53.12 | |||
| 34 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 33 | 4.93 | 53.20 | |||
| 35 | Eloy Fernandez | ESP | 36 | 5.01 | 53.38 | |||
| 36 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 35 | 4.97 | 53.49 | |||
| 37 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 30 | 5.61 | 58.48 |
