From Winterberg, GER
(February 24, 2024) – Hannah Neise and Christopher Grotheer slid to their second medals of the IBSF World Championships with a gold medal in the Skeleton Mixed Relay competition.
In the battle for the top five, the United States’ Mystique Ro and Austin Florian used a pair of big starts and quick slides to take the lead from China’s Yuxi Li and Wengang Yan. That lead lasted for about three minutes until it was the first British team’s turn.
Amelia Coltman got Great Britain I within .06 of Ro’s slide. Track record holder Marcus Wyatt then beat Florian’s reaction time by a hundredth of a second, part of a slide that led to a .09 second lead.
After Austria’s Janine Flock and Samy Maier fell behind Li and Wan, Germany’s Jacqueline Pfeifer and Axel Jungk slid to a .15 second lead over the Brits with four teams to go.
China’s Dan Zhao and Zheng Yin fell down the order after a 1.10 start penalty, they were followed by Valentina Margaglio and Amedeo Bagnis, the previous year’s Mixed Team world champions. The Italians struggled to keep speed in their slides and fell behind the Americans.
Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston edged out Pfeifer and Jungk after Weston beat Jungk’s time by .13 to give Weston his second medal in as many days.
Finally, it was Neise and Grotheer off the top for the final run. Neise was out-started by Stoecker but slid back to within .03 of the Brit to give Grotheer a race-off against Weston in a repeat of the men’s race a day before.
Like Neise, Grotheer was outstarted by his British counterpart. By the Kreisel, however, Grotheer was ahead. In a slide that matched his final run earlier in the week, Grotheer came back to win gold by .12 over the British team on the strength of the race-quickest run.
Germany’s Pfeifer and Junk took bronze.
The win for Neise was her second World Championships medal of both the weekend and career. For Grotheer, the championship was his seventh World Championship title, with three men’s skeleton world titles, three Mixed Team titles and a Team Competition gold.
Great Britain’s silver was Stoecker’s first championships medal, and Weston’s fourth.
Pfeifer’s bronze gave her nine World Championship medals between the old team competition, women’s skeleton, and the mixed team competition. Jungk added to his stellar career as the consummate teammate with his fourth team medal after winning three golds in the old bobsled-included team competition.
Great Britain’s stellar World Champs continued with both team in the top four, while the United States continued a championships full of consistent runs with a fifth place finish.
Canada’s Jane Channell and Blake Enzie finished tenth, two spots ahead of teammates Hallie Clarke and Ryan Kuehn in 12th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Reac W | Time W | Reac M | Time M | Total |
| 1 | Neise / Grotheer | GER-1 | 18 | 0.09 | 60.50 | 0.15 | 58.59 | 1:59.09 |
| 2 | Stoecker / Weston | GBR-2 | 17 | 0.11 | 60.47 | 0.14 | 58.74 | 1:59.21 |
| 3 | Pfeifer / Jungk | GER-2 | 14 | 0.20 | 60.44 | 0.06 | 58.87 | 1:59.31 |
| 4 | Coltman / Wyatt | GBR-1 | 12 | 0.13 | 60.76 | 0.14 | 58.70 | 1:59.46 |
| 5 | Ro / Florian | USA | 11 | 0.14 | 60.70 | 0.15 | 58.85 | 1:59.55 |
| 6 | Margaglio / Bagnis | ITA-1 | 16 | 0.11 | 60.66 | 0.20 | 58.98 | 1:59.64 |
| 7 | Li / Yan | CHN-2 | 9 | 0.13 | 61.07 | 0.20 | 59.05 | 2:00.12 |
| 8 | Flock / Maier | AUT-2 | 13 | 0.07 | 60.95 | 0.15 | 59.43 | 2:00.38 |
| 9 | Zhao / Yin | CHN-1 | 15 | .55+ | 61.18 | 0.10 | 59.21 | 2:00.39 |
| 10 | Channell / Enzie | CAN-1 | 7 | 0.18 | 60.64 | 0.10 | 59.90 | 2:00.54 |
| 11 | Crippa / Gaspari | ITA-2 | 10 | 0.20 | 61.23 | 0.14 | 59.47 | 2:00.70 |
| 12 | Clarke / Kuehn | CAN-2 | 8 | 0.21 | 60.64 | 0.11 | 60.36 | 2:01.00 |
| 13 | Pelckmans / Freeling | BEL | 2 | 0.15 | 61.48 | 0.14 | 59.90 | 2:01.38 |
| 14 | Erlacher / Schlintner | AUT-1 | 5 | 0.13 | 61.55 | .20+ | 60.06 | 2:01.61 |
| 15 | Simmchen / Summermatter | SUI-2 | 3 | 0.11 | 62.18 | 0.13 | 59.59 | 2:01.77 |
| 16 | Schmied / Buff | SUI-1 | 6 | 0.12 | 61.53 | .66+ | 60.30 | 2:01.83 |
| 17 | Fernstädt / Drahonovsky | CZE | 4 | 0.19 | 61.24 | 0.29 | 60.85 | 2:02.09 |
| 18 | Torres Quevedo / Rodriguez | ESP | 1 | 0.11 | 63.59 | 0.17 | 60.45 | 2:04.04 |
