From Lillehammer, NOR
(January 27, 2024) – The track record fell after the first sled down in Lillehammer and continued to drop over the course of the first heat on the 1994 Olympic track.
By the end of the afternoon it had been lowered by a full second in a Johannes Lochner victory, his fourth of the season.
Lochner and brakeman Georg Fleischhauer had their sights set both on a track record and the start record of 4.93 that had held since February of 1993, held by Pierre Lueders and Jack Pye. In the first heat the duo pushed within a hundredth of that time and slid to a track record 50.34, bettering that record by .96.
In their second run the duo couldn’t quite match their push, which meant the three decade old record will live for at least another season. Their downtime though was even faster, and more than enough to take gold by .38.
Behind Lochner, Francesco Friedrich and Alex Schüller nearly got the start record in the second heat, also missing by a hundredth of a second. They opened up such a large lead over anyone else that had gone before them that Friedrich crashed out of Curve 15, got the sled righted out of Curve 16 and still had the lead at the finish. Friedrich then held off efforts by Michael Vogt, who had entered the heat tied with Friedrich, and German teammate Adam Ammour to win silver despite the crash.
Ammour and brakeman Benedikt Hertel held on for bronze, the second of the season for Ammour, after a pair of sub-five second starts coupled with two quick runs.
The German sweep of the podium was the second of the weekend after the men’s skeleton team took the podium on Friday.
The Swiss team of Michael Vogt and Sandro Michel took fourth, .18 off of the podium after entering the second heat tied with Friedrich.
The American team of Frank Del Duca and Manteo Mitchell had a pair of competitive pushes coupled with a couple of good drives by Del Duca gave the Americans a top five finish, up from sixth in the first heat.
Brad Hall, still coming back from injury, found a bunch of speed at the bottom of both of his runs after two decent pushes by he and Taylor Lawrence to finish with a top six in sixth.
Great Britain’s John Stanbridge finished 14th, a World Cup career best. He was the first slider off the top in the first heat and broke the old track record, and 12 other sliders went below that time in the first heat.
After five races on the IBSF World Cup two-man schedule, Johannes Lochner is the World Cup point leader by 70 OVER Francesco Friedrich. Michael Vogt is third, while Simon Friedli and Emils Cipulis are tied for fourth, with Friedli holding the tiebreaker.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 11 | 4.94 | 4.95 | 50.34 | 50.29 | 1:40.63 |
| 2 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 9 | 4.95 | 4.94 | 50.62 | 50.39 | 1:41.01 |
| 3 | Ammour / Hertel | GER | 10 | 4.98 | 4.97 | 50.58 | 50.50 | 1:41.08 |
| 4 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 6 | 5.02 | 5.01 | 50.62 | 50.64 | 1:41.26 |
| 5 | Del Duca / Mitchell | USA | 5 | 5.05 | 5.05 | 50.81 | 50.96 | 1:41.77 |
| 6 | Hall / Lawrence | GBR | 19 | 5.05 | 5.03 | 50.93 | 50.85 | 1:41.78 |
| 7 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 4 | 5.05 | 5.09 | 50.79 | 51.02 | 1:41.81 |
| 8 | Cipulis / Springis | LAT | 7 | 5.04 | 5.05 | 50.96 | 50.94 | 1:41.90 |
| 9 | Kalenda / Ungurs | LAT | 15 | 5.09 | 5.07 | 50.98 | 51.03 | 1:42.01 |
| 10 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 8 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 51.04 | 50.98 | 1:42.02 |
| 11 | Vain / Riou | MON | 2 | 5.00 | 5.02 | 51.06 | 51.05 | 1:42.11 |
| 12 | Treichl / Huber | AUT | 12 | 5.11 | 5.10 | 51.10 | 51.05 | 1:42.15 |
| 13 | Variola / Obou | ITA | 22 | 5.12 | 5.11 | 51.36 | 51.17 | 1:42.53 |
| 14 | Stanbridge / Cartagena | GBR | 1 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 51.29 | 51.34 | 1:42.63 |
| 15 | Sun / Zhen | CHN | 16 | 5.11 | 5.15 | 51.38 | 51.26 | 1:42.64 |
| 16 | Tentea / Dinescu | ROU | 17 | 5.16 | 5.16 | 51.41 | 51.23 | 1:42.64 |
| 17 | Follador / Jones | SUI | 13 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 51.35 | 51.30 | 1:42.65 |
| 18 | Dobes / Zalesky | CZE | 20 | 5.07 | 5.10 | 51.44 | 51.37 | 1:42.81 |
| 19 | Behounek / Dobes | CZE | 18 | 5.17 | 5.16 | 51.57 | 51.39 | 1:42.96 |
| 20 | Li / Zhu | CHN | 14 | 5.14 | 5.13 | 51.62 | 51.41 | 1:43.03 |
| 21 | Boron / Sienkiewicz | POL | 21 | 5.17 | 51.71 | |||
| 22 | Sobczyk / Kaminski | POL | 3 | 5.23 | 51.76 |
