From Oberhof, GER
(February 17, 2024) – Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl continued their outstanding first season as a team with their second straight gold medal, this time holding off Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt for top honors.
Steu and Kindl led Wendl and Arlt after the first heat, with Germany’s Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz just over a tenth of a second back in third.
The second run saw Orlamünder and Gubitz slide into the lead ahead of Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume to guarantee a medal for Germany. Up next were Wendl and Arlt, who set the quick time of the heat with their second run to take the lead from their teammates.
The final team off the top were Steu and Kindl. The duo picked up a hundredth off their start, but couldn’t quite match the second run speed of Wendl and Arlt. However, the Austrian duo’s first run downtime was just enough to hold off the Germans as they took gold by .073 over Wendl and Arlt, with Orlamünder and Gubitz third.
The win for Steu and Kindl was their second straight and third in four races. They’ve only been off of the podium once all season.
For Wendl and Arlt, silver was their second straight medal after a disappointing race in Altenberg. Orlamünder and Gubitz also had a disappointing Altenberg but has rallied in Oberhof.
Bots and Plume finished fourth, almost two tenths out of the medals and just ahead of Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier of Italy in fifth. Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf rounded out the top six.
Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander finished ninth with two consistent runs. Teammates Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike finished 14th, while Canadians Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski finished 16th.
The race was the first held with the modified FIL World Cup start lists, where instead of the Nation’s Cup sliders all going first then the seeded sliders, the top three Nation’s Cup finishers started in reverse order, then the seeded groups, then the remainder of the Nation’s Cup qualifiers. In the second heat, the top 18 went from 18th to first, then the remainder of the field went.
With two full races and two sprints to go in the 2023/2024 World Cup season, Steu and Kindl lead by 126 points over Wendl and Arlt. Bots and Plume sit third, 30 points behind the Germans, with Orlamünder and Gubitz and Gatt and Schöpf rounding out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 10 | 7.417 | 7.400 | 41.552 | 41.781 | 1:23.333 |
| 2 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 13 | 7.323 | 7.306 | 41.651 | 41.755 | 1:23.406 |
| 3 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 14 | 7.402 | 7.411 | 41.686 | 41.766 | 1:23.452 |
| 4 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 11 | 7.381 | 3.408 | 41.755 | 41.873 | 1:23.628 |
| 5 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 17 | 7.405 | 7.351 | 41.816 | 41.908 | 1:23.724 |
| 6 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 12 | 7.532 | 7.578 | 41.761 | 42.110 | 1:23.871 |
| 7 | Jäger / Steudte | GER | 5 | 7.518 | 7.529 | 41.835 | 42.087 | 1:23.922 |
| 8 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 15 | 7.431 | 7.422 | 41.956 | 41.981 | 1:23.937 |
| 9 | DiGregorio / Hollander | USA | 2 | 7.451 | 7.458 | 41.891 | 42.118 | 1:24.009 |
| 10 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 8 | 7.491 | 7.534 | 41.832 | 42.201 | 1:24.033 |
| 11 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 9 | 7.424 | 7.429 | 42.095 | 42.090 | 1:24.185 |
| 12 | Rieder / Gufler | ITA | 3 | 7.468 | 7.445 | 42.040 | 42.201 | 1:24.241 |
| 13 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 6 | 7.438 | 7.437 | 42.141 | 42.201 | 1:24.342 |
| 14 | Kellogg / Ike | USA | 4 | 7.549 | 7.618 | 42.206 | 42.481 | 1:24.687 |
| 15 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 1 | 7.498 | 7.469 | 42.393 | 42.429 | 1:24.822 |
| 16 | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 16 | 7.534 | 7.510 | 42.466 | 42.392 | 1:24.858 |
| 17 | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 21 | 7.587 | 7.605 | 42.827 | 42.782 | 1:25.609 |
| 18 | Huang / Peng | CHN | 17 | 7.615 | 7.640 | 42.829 | 43.021 | 1:25.850 |
| 19 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 18 | 7.585 | 7.562 | 42.745 | 43.157 | 1:25.902 |
| 20 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 20 | 7.826 | 7.875 | 43.225 | 43.322 | 1:26.547 |
| DNF | Handaric / Motzcz | ROU | 19 | 7.665 | DNF |
