From Altenberg, GER
(January 11, 2025) – Max Langenhan took his second gold medal of the season in a German 1-2 in Altenberg.
The reigning World Cup champ slid to the lead from the 14th starting position, a tenth ahead of current World Cup point leader Nico Gleirscher. Behined them, Felix Loch lingered looking for a chance to score his first victory of the year.
In the second heat, Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller had possibly his best slide of the season as he took the lead from Kristers Aparjods to solidify a top four and have a possible look at the podium.
Loch was next, and bettered Fischnaller’s second slide by .069 to move into the podium for the second time this season.
Gleirscher was next. It looked early on as though the Austrian would, at the very least, put the pressure on Langenhan for gold. But a mistake out of the very tricky Curve 9 set him back and well out of the medals.
Finally it was Langenhan’s turn on the track that he’d won the 2024 World Championships on. His advantage over Loch got as low as .117, but a nearly flawless exit out of Curve 9 coupled with a very smooth run below the Kreisel gave him his second gold medal on the 2024/2025 season, .23 ahead of Loch, with Fischnaller third.
Langenhan’s gold was the 17th of his career, second among active men’s singles athletes behind Loch.
Fischnaller’s bronze was the first for Italy in a singles or doubles race in the 2024/2025 season. They’d previously only won a medal in a Team Relay race earlier in the season.
Aparjods finished fourth, Nico Glerischer eventually finished fifth after his disappointing second effort, while Gints Berzins rounded out the top six.
The United States had three sliders in the field, led by Jonny Gustafson, who was the final slider into the second heat in 20th but put down a top ten run in the second heat to finish 13th. Teammate Tucker West had the fastest start in the second heat and finished 17th, while Hunter Harris finished 27th.
Australia’s Alex Ferlazzo had a very good first run that placed him eighth going into the second heat. In his second run he looked to have a top ten locked up, but trouble in the last few curves knocked him off his sled, and he scored a DNF.
With four races to go in the 2024/2025 season, Nico Gleirscher leads Max Langenhan by just 15 points. Felix Loch is third, with Kristers Aparjods and Dominik Fischnaller rounding out the top five.
Jonas Müller chose to sit out the race in Altenberg and fell to sixth overall.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Max Langenhan | GER | 14 | 7.218 | 7.211 | 54.166 | 54.044 | 1:48.210 |
| 2 | Felix Loch | GER | 12 | 7.200 | 7.208 | 54.338 | 74.102 | 1:48.440 |
| 3 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 9 | 7.150 | 7.147 | 54.438 | 54.171 | 1:48.609 |
| 4 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 17 | 7.170 | 7.175 | 54.549 | 54.240 | 1:48.789 |
| 5 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 15 | 7.175 | 7.188 | 54.269 | 74.751 | 1:49.020 |
| 6 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 11 | 7.167 | 7.192 | 54.550 | 54.564 | 1:49.114 |
| 7 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 10 | 7.292 | 7.279 | 54.657 | 54.649 | 1:49.306 |
| 8 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 13 | 7.214 | 7.196 | 54.906 | 54.507 | 1:49.413 |
| 9 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 4 | 7.205 | 7.244 | 54.800 | 54.664 | 1:49.464 |
| 10 | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 20 | 7.273 | 7.273 | 54.798 | 54.711 | 1:49.509 |
| 11 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 8 | 7.193 | 7.204 | 54.923 | 54.776 | 1:49.699 |
| 12 | Noah Kallan | AUT | 19 | 7.293 | 7.285 | 54.843 | 54.869 | 1:49.712 |
| 13 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 23 | 7.223 | 7.253 | 55.074 | 54.730 | 1:49.804 |
| 14 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 21 | 7.332 | 7.280 | 55.013 | 54.863 | 1:49.876 |
| 15 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 22 | 7.268 | 7.266 | 55.051 | 55.016 | 1:50.067 |
| 16 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 2 | 7.223 | 7.284 | 55.014 | 55.326 | 1:50.340 |
| 17 | Tucker West | USA | 6 | 7.221 | 7.140 | 54.860 | 55.483 | 1:50.343 |
| 18 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 5 | 7.362 | 7.317 | 55.072 | 55.322 | 1:50.394 |
| 19 | David Nößler | GER | 7 | 7.243 | 7.254 | 54.768 | 56.511 | 1:51.279 |
| 20 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 1 | 7.191 | 55.132 | |||
| 21 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 18 | 7.336 | 55.300 | |||
| 22 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 24 | 7.292 | 55.553 | |||
| 23 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 28 | 7.327 | 55.688 | |||
| 24 | Seiya Kobayashi | JPN | 25 | 7.281 | 55.781 | |||
| 25 | Danyil Martsinovskyi | UKR | 26 | 7.294 | 55.825 | |||
| 26 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 29 | 7.295 | 55.863 | |||
| 27 | Hunter Harris | USA | 30 | 7.345 | 56.763 | |||
| 28 | Mirza Nikolajev | BIH | 27 | 7.327 | 56.959 | |||
| DSQ | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 16 | 5.234 | DSQ | |||
| DNF | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 3 | 7.209 | 7.178 | 54.687 | DNF |