From Altenberg, GER
(February 16, 2024) – Axel Jungk avenged an earlier day’s disappointing finish and teammate Susanne Kreher picked up one spot from her race earlier in the day as the pair slid to gold in the second Skeleton Mixed Team Competition of the 2023/2024 IBSF World Cup season.
Kreher started things off with the fastest reaction time of the competition, a .05, and used that to slide to within .28 of Czechia’s Anna Fernstädt, who led alongside teammate Timon Drahonovsky. Jungk then put down a run that was about as perfect anyone could have slid to give the team a nice .69 second lead over the Czech duo.
From there, neither China’s Dan Zhao and men’s skeleton gold medalist Zheng Yin nor Italy’s St. Moritz Mixed Team winners Valentina Margaglio and Amedeo Bagnis could keep up with the German duo.
The last team off the top were German Olympic gold medalists Hannah Neise and Christopher Grotheer. Neise made a mistake early as she hit the wall out of the Omega curve to set the team back early. Grotheer, while clean, couldn’t find the speed Jungk had in his run as Neise and Grotheer slid to third, tied with the United States’ Katie Uhlaender and Austin Florian.
The win for Kreher was her first on the World Cup tour after winning gold in both the women’s and team events in the 2023 World Championships in St. Moritz last season. For Jungk, the gold medal was his first World Cup gold since December 2021 in Altenberg.
The silver medal went to Czechia’s Fernstädt and Drahonovsky on the strength of Fernstädt’s race-fastest slide on the women’s side of things. It was the second career World Cup silver medal for Fernstädt (Königssee – Jan. 2021 being the other) and the first ever World Cup medal for Drahonovsky.
In a race with so many variables, a tie felt a bit incomprehensible, but a tie for bronze is what the race had. Uhlaender and Florian went off from the ninth starting spot and slid to within .05 of the Czech duo to take third, tied with Neise and Grotheer. The bronze was Florian’s first ever World Cup gold after coming close a few times before. It was Uhlaender’s 23rd career World Cup medal.
A little bit lost in all of the commotion of the podium winners were the Candian team of Jane Channell and Blake Enzie. Channell was the only woman to get with a quarter of a second of Fernstädt, and Enzie finished his run with an eighth place effort for a combined fifth place finish, only .03 out of the medals.
Austria’s Annia Unterscheider and Florian Auer rounded out the top six after Auer’s third quickest run.
The Untied States’ second team of Sara Roderick and Daniel Barefoot finished ninth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Reac W | Time W | Reac M | Time M | Total |
| 1 | Kreher / Jungk | GER-1 | 12 | 0.05 | 61.52 | 0.12 | 59.40 | 2:00.92 |
| 2 | Fernstädt / Drahonovsky | CZE | 4 | 0.18 | 61.24 | 0.14 | 60.37 | 2:01.61 |
| 3 | Uhlaender / Florian | USA-1 | 9 | 0.24 | 62.33 | 0.15 | 59.33 | 2:01.66 |
| 3 | Neise / Grotheer | GER-2 | 15 | 0.11 | 61.77 | 0.15 | 59.89 | 2:01.66 |
| 5 | Channell / Enzie | CAN | 7 | 0.07 | 61.36 | 0.15 | 60.33 | 2:01.69 |
| 6 | Unterschedier / Auer | AUT-2 | 3 | 0.15 | 62.34 | 0.09 | 59.56 | 2:01.90 |
| 7 | Margaglio / Bagnis | ITA-2 | 14 | 0.14 | 62.21 | 0.25 | 60.05 | 2:02.26 |
| 8 | Zhao / Yin | CHN-1 | 13 | 0.07 | 62.68 | 0.12 | 59.71 | 2:02.39 |
| 9 | Roderick / Barefoot | USA-2 | 8 | 0.19 | 62.17 | 0.17 | 60.38 | 2:02.55 |
| 10 | Fumagalli / Gaspari | ITA-1 | 10 | 0.15 | 62.66 | 0.11 | 59.92 | 2:02.58 |
| 11 | Erlacher / Schlintner | AUT-1 | 5 | 0.12 | 61.81 | 0.16 | 60.92 | 2:02.73 |
| 12 | Schmied / V. Buff | SUI-1 | 6 | 0.15 | 62.11 | 0.09 | 60.66 | 2:02.77 |
| 13 | Simmchen / Summermatter | SUI-2 | 2 | 0.15 | 62.18 | 0.11 | 61.04 | 2:03.22 |
| 14 | Li / Chen | CHN-2 | 11 | 0.13 | 62.57 | 0.12 | 60.83 | 2:03.40 |
| 15 | Torres Quevedo / Rodriguez | ESP | 1 | 0.12 | 64.61 | 0.08 | 62.50 | 2:07.11 |
