From Winterberg, GER
(February 23, 2024) – The 2024 World Championships race for gold in men’s skeleton was between two sliders, and the only two world champions in the field: Matt Weston, the defending champ and Christopher Grotheer, the winner of the 2020 and 2021 events. Everyone else was racing for bronze.
In the battle for gold, Germany’s Grotheer led Great Britain’s Weston by just .04 after two heats. In the third heat, Grotheer kicked things off by setting a track record with a 55.32, .18 ahead of the old record held by Alexander Tretiakov.
Weston went off second, and his second run was also quicker than Tretiakov’s second run, but still .11 slower than Grotheer, giving the German a .15 advantage over Weston going into the fourth heat.
In the fourth heat, Weston was the first of the pair push off the top. The Brit once again had a quick start, the eighth fastest of the heat, and coupled it with what would be the fourth fastest downtime ever in Winterberg to take the lead by .78 and solidify his second straight world championship medal with only Grotheer to go.
But Weston had a few small mistakes in his final run. Christopher Grotheer, the final slider of the competition, did not. His push, while only 12th quickest, was his fastest of the competition. His slide was nearly perfect, and his downtime was more than enough to give him a gold medal by .23 over Weston.
The win for Grotheer gave him three World Championship titles in the last four events. Add in the 2022 Olympic Games and he’s won four of the last five four-heat events.
For Weston, the silver gave him two straight championship medals, a stark turnaround from his three previous four-heat races where he finished 15th (2022 OWG), 23rd (Altenberg 2021) and 15th (Altenberg 2020).
In the battle for bronze, China’s Zheng Yin rallied from a tough run in the first heat to move into third overnight. On his third run he matched the old track record time, but both Germany’s Axel Jungk and Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt hung with him, making it a three-man race for bronze.
The fourth heat’s battle for bronze nearly matched the drama of the women’s race earlier in the day. Jungk was first off, and his slide looked like it would be enough to move up with a 55.40, at the time second fastest ever in Winterberg.
Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt was next. He’d come into the event looking for his first World Champs medal after finished of fifth and seventh in 2023 and 2021. His start was hist best of the competition, and his slide was about as perfect as could be as he slid to a track record 55.26, enough to put him ahead of Jungk with Yin to go.
Yin, a noted big starter, had the second fastest start of the competition, but his slide did not have the speed of Wyatt’s. Throughout his run, the Chinese slider came back to Wyatt, and it looked momentarily as though he’d fall out of the medals. As he crossed the line he remained ahead of Wyatt, but only by .01 to win China’s first ever sliding World Championships medal.
Wyatt was held to fourth, Jungk fifth, and Felix Keisinger sixth, up from seventh at the start of the day.
Great Britain’s Craig Thompson was fourth after the first heat, but a disastrous second run dropped him to eighth overnight. His third and fourth heats were consistent, and enough to keep him in eighth to put all three Brits in the top eight.
Austin Florian had a disappointing first run of the competition and was 12th after that first run. His second run helped him move up to 11th, which is where he stayed after his third run. His fourth effort was his third straight top ten run of the competition to move into ninth, his third top ten in World Championship competition and best finish in a World Championships since Altenberg 2020.
Vladyslav Heraskevych consistently found time at the bottom of the track in Winterberg, and had four quick and clean runs to finish a World Champs career-best 10th.
Dan Barefoot, had a wild flip out of the final curve in his third heat, and finished 22nd for his best finish in a World Championships to close out the American effort.
Canada’s Blake Enzie finished 24th, one spot ahead of Spain’s Adrian Rodriguez in 25th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 1 | 56.76 | 57.54 | 55.32 | 55.29 | 3:44.91 |
| 2 | Matt Weston | GBR | 2 | 56.79 | 57.55 | 55.43 | 55.37 | 3:45.14 |
| 3 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 3 | 57.40 | 57.63 | 55.50 | 55.39 | 3:45.92 |
| 4 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 6 | 57.29 | 57.88 | 55.50 | 55.26 | 3:45.93 |
| 5 | Axel Jungk | GER | 10 | 57.71 | 57.44 | 55.52 | 55.40 | 3:46.07 |
| 6 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 5 | 57.14 | 58.06 | 55.78 | 55.59 | 3:46.57 |
| 7 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 8 | 57.28 | 57.80 | 55.80 | 55.72 | 3:46.60 |
| 8 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 9 | 57.27 | 58.02 | 55.63 | 55.73 | 3:46.65 |
| 9 | Austin Florian | USA | 15 | 57.82 | 57.64 | 55.83 | 55.68 | 3:46.97 |
| 10 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 17 | 57.82 | 57.50 | 55.86 | 55.82 | 3:47.00 |
| 11 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 12 | 57.52 | 58.19 | 55.79 | 55.59 | 3:47.09 |
| 12 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 7 | 57.94 | 57.36 | 55.94 | 55.87 | 3:47.11 |
| 13 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 13 | 57.77 | 57.65 | 56.01 | 55.96 | 3:47.39 |
| 14 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 4 | 57.62 | 58.30 | 56.02 | 55.90 | 3:47.84 |
| 15 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 11 | 57.92 | 57.80 | 56.15 | 55.99 | 3:47.86 |
| 16 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 16 | 58.07 | 57.84 | 56.28 | 55.92 | 3:48.11 |
| 16 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 19 | 58.35 | 57.77 | 56.01 | 55.98 | 3:48.11 |
| 18 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 14 | 58.03 | 57.90 | 56.21 | 56.10 | 3:48.24 |
| 19 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 22 | 58.67 | 57.91 | 56.36 | 56.01 | 3:48.95 |
| 20 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 18 | 58.60 | 57.97 | 56.30 | 56.22 | 3:49.09 |
| 21 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 21 | 58.99 | 58.13 | 56.27 | 55.93 | 3:49.32 |
| 22 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 20 | 58.49 | 58.18 | 56.28 | 56.45 | 3:49.40 |
| 23 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 23 | 58.69 | 58.35 | 56.33 | 56.44 | 3:49.81 |
| 24 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 24 | 59.13 | 58.14 | 56.53 | 56.47 | 3:50.27 |
| 25 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 25 | 59.67 | 58.73 | 57.19 | 56.91 | 3:52.50 |
| 26 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 27 | 59.80 | 59.85 | 57.42 | 2:57.07 | |
| 27 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 30 | 60.22 | 60.50 | 57.25 | 2:57.97 | |
| 28 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 26 | 59.87 | 61.02 | 57.73 | 2:58.62 | |
| 29 | Chun-Hung Chiang | TPE | 28 | 60.42 | 60.81 | 57.80 | 2:59.03 | |
| 30 | Vladyslav Polyvach | POL | 29 | 60.79 | 60.86 | 58.02 | 2:59.67 | |
| DNS | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 31 | DNS |