From Winterberg, GER
(January 3, 2025) – It was a snowy evening for the skeleton mixed team event on Friday night. The messy weather led to a messy track and a very unpredictable result.
The race kicked off with Spain and the two Swiss teams handing off the lead from the first three starting spots. The Czech team of Anna Fernstädt and cousin Timon Drahonovsky were unable to match Sara Schmied and Vinzenz Buff’s time and fell into second behind the Swiss early on.
The China-1 team of Dan Zhao and Qinwei were next as the snow began to pick up around the track. Their combined downtime gave them a decent lead over anyone else. The USA-2 team of Sara Roderick and Dan Barefoot slid to within a half of a second of the Chinese duo, but were quickly overtaken by the China-2 team of Yuxi Lin and Zheng Yin.
And that was basically it for a while. With the snow picking up, team after team were unable to come anywhere near the Chinese. Both Italian teams had what were otherwise clean runs with absolutely no speed, and both German teams seemingly were out to lunch in the snow.
However, the weather seemed to let up toward the end of the race. The USA-1 team of Mystique Ro and Austin Florian both had top ten runs to move into fourth behind their teammates, but were picked off two teams later when the German duo of Hannah Neise and Felix Keisinger were also able to manage top eight runs between them.
Then it was Austria’s Janine Flock and Samy Maier’s turn. Flock, the winner of the women’s race, slid to the lead by a tenth over Zhao. Maier had the quick reaction of the race and a decent start, coupled with a clean slide as the Austrians got to within a tenth of a second of the Chinese team.
The final two teams were from Great Britain. GBR-1’s Tabby Stoecker jumped the start to draw a .62 second penalty. Her slide combined with Marcus Wyatt’s slide would have been good enough for third, but with the penalty added on they fell into sixth, just behind Ro and Florian.
All that was left were the GBR-2 squad of Amelia Coltman and Matt Weston. Coltman couldn’t match her women’s skeleton race effort and slid into 11th. Weston did his part and put down what was the quickest run of the men’s side, but it was too little, too late as they fell in behind their teammates with China winning their first medals in the discipline.
The final results saw China-1’s Dan Zhao and Qinwei Lin take gold, Austria’s Janine Flock and Samy Maier silver, and China-2’s Yuxi Lin and Zheng Yin bronze. Sara Roderick had the quick start and quick downtime for the women, and that coupled with a strong slide by Dan Barefoot gave USA-2 fourth place, a tenth of a second ahead of Germany-1’s Hannah Neise and Felix Keisinger.
The United States placed both teams in the top six, with Mystique Ro and Austin Florian had a pair of strong pushes and top ten slides in sixth.
The two British teams, Tabby Stoecker and Marcus Wyatt for Great Britain-1 and Amelia Coltman and Matt Weston for Great Britain-2 finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Reac W | Time W | Reac M | Time M | Total |
| 1 | Dan Zhao / Qinwei Lin | CHN-1 | 5 | 0.18 | 61.46 | 0.30 | 59.41 | 2:00.87 |
| 2 | Janine Flock / Samuel Maier | AUT-1 | 17 | 0.20 | 61.36 | 0.12 | 59.61 | 2:00.97 |
| 3 | Yuxi Li / Zheng Yin | CHN-2 | 7 | 0.12 | 61.55 | 0.18 | 59.73 | 2:01.28 |
| 4 | Sara Roderick / Daniel Barefoot | USA-2 | 6 | 0.17 | 61.30 | 0.19 | 60.08 | 2:01.38 |
| 5 | Hannah Neise / Felix Keisinger | GER-1 | 16 | 0.20 | 61.74 | 0.19 | 59.74 | 2:01.48 |
| 6 | Mystique Ro / Austin Florian | USA-1 | 14 | 0.18 | 61.41 | 0.18 | 60.10 | 2:01.51 |
| 7 | Tabitha Stoecker / Marcus Wyatt | GBR-1 | 18 | *.07 + .62 | 62.24 | 0.16 | 59.52 | 2:01.76 |
| 8 | Amelia Coltman / Matt Weston | GBR-2 | 19 | 0.06 | 62.65 | 0.18 | 59.25 | 2:01.90 |
| 9 | Sara Schmied / Vinzenz Buff | SUI-1 | 3 | 0.28 | 61.81 | 0.25 | 60.45 | 2:02.26 |
| 10 | Anna Fernstädt / Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 4 | 0.35 | 61.49 | 0.15 | 61.16 | 2:02.65 |
| 11 | Nanna Johansen / Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 8 | 0.21 | 62.98 | 0.18 | 59.91 | 2:02.89 |
| 12 | Alessia Crippa / Amedeo Bagnis | ITA-2 | 11 | 0.19 | 61.71 | 0.21 | 61.39 | 2:03.10 |
| 13 | Julia Simmchen / Livio Summermatter | SUI-2 | 2 | 0.16 | 63.16 | 0.15 | 60.17 | 2:03.33 |
| 14 | Jacqueline Pfeifer / Lukas Nydegger | GER-2 | 15 | 0.25 | 62.79 | 0.26 | 60.67 | 2:03.46 |
| 15 | Valentina Margaglio / Mattia Gaspari | ITA-1 | 12 | 0.16 | 62.84 | 0.20 | 60.73 | 2:03.57 |
| 16 | Kimberley Bos / Joeri van Kuppeveld | NED | 13 | 0.18 | 63.18 | 0.16 | 60.77 | 2:03.95 |
| 17 | Aline Pelckmans / Colin Freeling | BEL | 10 | 0.12 | 63.15 | 0.20 | 60.98 | 2:04.13 |
| 18 | Clara Aznar / Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 1 | 0.28 | 64.80 | 0.17 | 61.04 | 2:05.84 |
| DNS | Julia Erlacher / Alexander Schlintner | AUT-2 | 9 | DNS |