From Pyeongchang, KOR
(November 16, 2024) – Germany’s Christopher Grotheer held off challenges by two of Britain’s best on Saturday to win gold on the 2018 Olympic track in Pyeongchang.
Hosting its first World Cup race since the Olympic test event, the weather around the Alpensia Sliding Centre was both warm and humid, which led to the same interesting results through the field as seen in the women’s race earlier in the day.
After one heat, Grotheer held the lead by .17 over Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt, with Chinese slider Wenhao Chen in third. Mattia Gaspari and Samuel Maier rounded out the top five for Italy and Austria, respectively.
But like in the women’s race, the track frosted up quickly in the second run, and sliders who had earlier draws in the heat found themselves on significantly better ice. A good slide would propel someone well up the order, while someone who was higher ranked after one run would need a nearly flawless slide to hold a spot.
Denmark’s Rasmus Johansen was the athlete who took the biggest leap in the second heat. From 17th place he put down what would be the third quickest run of the second heat, enough to move him up the order past most of the field. He wouldn’t relinquish the lead until reigning World Cup champ Matt Weston took over from 10th place.
From there, Weston held the lead until he was in the medals, with only teammate Wyatt and Grotheer to go. Wyatt’s second effort was .62 slower than Westons, and over two seconds slower than his first effort, but was enough to take the lead and guarantee a pair of medals for Great Britain.
Finally it was Grotheer’s turn. The three-time and reigning world champ had a clean enough run, but was 2.62 seconds slower than his first effort. However, it was enough to hold off Wyatt by .15 to take his first victory of the World Cup season, with Wyatt silver and Weston winning bronze.
Grotheer’s victory was his third in South Korea this month, as he won gold in the first two Asian Cup races to start the IBSF sliding season.
For Wyatt, the silver was the eighth medal of his World Cup career, while for Weston the bronze gave him 14 in men’s singles sliding. Weston also has two Mixed Team medals to his name.
Johansen’s second heat effort gave him a fourth place finish, a career best, while Chen and Maier rounded out the top six.
The fastest run of the second heat belonged to Haifeng Zhu, who finished 17th after starting the heat in 23rd.
For the Americans, Austin Florian was the top slider in 14th place, tied with Amedeo Bagnis. Team USA put two sliders in the top 25, with Daniel Barefoot setting the fifth quickest time of the second heat to finish 21st. Hunter Williams rounded out the American effort in 33rd.
Ryan Kuehn was the top Canadian in 27th place, with teammate Kyle Donsberger in 33rd.
Craig Thompson finished 13th on the final British sled.
Nick Timmings scored a 23rd place finish for Australia, while Jonathan Yaw finished 30th for Malaysia.
The IBSF men’s and women’s skeleton tour continues in Peyongchang on Sunday with another round of races before moving to Yanqing one week later.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 3 | 4.81 | 4.81 | 51.85 | 54.47 | 1:46.32 |
| 2 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 4 | 4.68 | 4.69 | 52.02 | 54.45 | 1:46.47 |
| 3 | Matt Weston | GBR | 1 | 4.69 | 4.70 | 53.12 | 53.83 | 1:46.95 |
| 4 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 16 | 4.79 | 4.79 | 53.84 | 53.16 | 1:47.00 |
| 4 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 7 | 4.77 | 4.75 | 52.50 | 54.53 | 1:47.03 |
| 6 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 15 | 4.84 | 4.86 | 52.91 | 54.32 | 1:47.23 |
| 7 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 13 | 4.65 | 4.67 | 53.10 | 54.16 | 1:47.26 |
| 8 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 12 | 4.85 | 4.84 | 53.28 | 54.05 | 1:47.33 |
| 9 | Axel Jungk | GER | 10 | 4.85 | 4.87 | 53.06 | 54.36 | 1:47.42 |
| 10 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 6 | 4.77 | 4.76 | 53.09 | 54.33 | 1:47.32 |
| 11 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 17 | 4.95 | 4.94 | 53.75 | 53.82 | 1:47.67 |
| 12 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 9 | 4.91 | 4.88 | 52.83 | 54.79 | 1:47.62 |
| 13 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 8 | 4.70 | 4.71 | 53.18 | 54.47 | 1:47.65 |
| 14 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 5 | 4.64 | 4.70 | 53.23 | 54.51 | 1:47.74 |
| 14 | Austin Florian | USA | 11 | 4.63 | 4.67 | 53.79 | 53.95 | 1:47.74 |
| 16 | Zheng Yi | CHN | 2 | 4.77 | 4.83 | 52.94 | 54.91 | 1:47.85 |
| 17 | Heifeng Zhu | CHN | 28 | 4.77 | 4.76 | 55.23 | 52.88 | 1:48.81 |
| 18 | Lukas Nydegger | GER | 14 | 4.88 | 4.89 | 53.65 | 54.50 | 1:48.15 |
| 19 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 18 | 5.18 | 4.65 | 55.04 | 53.11 | 1:48.15 |
| 20 | Giovanni Marchetti | ITA | 24 | 4.79 | 4.81 | 54.40 | 54.01 | 1:48.41 |
| 21 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 22 | 4.85 | 4.84 | 54.89 | 53.75 | 1:48.64 |
| 22 | Hyungjun Sim | KOR | 19 | 4.75 | 4.70 | 54.74 | 53.92 | 1:48.66 |
| 23 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 29 | 4.91 | 4.93 | 55.54 | 53.54 | 1:49.08 |
| 24 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 25 | 4.79 | 4.80 | 55.67 | 53.83 | 1:49.50 |
| 25 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 23 | 4.82 | 4.85 | 54.55 | 55.64 | 1:50.19 |
| 26 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 26 | 5.00 | 55.88 | |||
| 27 | Ryah Kuehn | CAN | 21 | 4.74 | 56.01 | |||
| 28 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 27 | 4.98 | 55.32 | |||
| 29 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 32 | 4.89 | 56.80 | |||
| 30 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 20 | 4.92 | 56.84 | |||
| 31 | Colin Feeling | BEL | 31 | 5.36 | 56.93 | |||
| 32 | Kyle Donsberger | CAN | 33 | 4.97 | 57.00 | |||
| 33 | Hunter Williams | USA | 30 | 4.82 | 57.40 | |||
| 34 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 34 | 5.10 | 57.89 |
