From Altenberg, GER
(December 17, 2021) – Latvia’s Martins Dukurs took the first gold medal of the second race weekend in Altenberg, coming from behind to edge out Axel Jungk.
Dukurs trailed Jungk by .23 after the first heat in foggy, humid conditions. On the second run the track appeared to frost up and lose some speed, with many of the later athletes unable to match their first run time. Dukurs was the only one to go faster of that latter group, and he slid into the lead with only Jungk to go. Jungk’s second run wasn’t quite as clean as Dukurs’s and was only good enough for fifth quickest in the heat and second overall, with Dukurs taking gold.
The win for Dukurs was his 59th World Cup gold medal and fifth in Altenberg. Jungk’s silver was his second straight silver and third straight medal. He has yet to finish outside of the top five this season.
Christopher Grotheer retained his World Cup point lead with a bronze medal. In five races this season he has yet to finish off of the podium.
Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov finished fourth, one spot ahead of Austria’s Samuel Maier in fifth. Maier’s second run was the second quickest of the heat and enough to move him from ninth into the top five.
Nikita Tregubov finished sixth.
Austria’s Samy Maier made the jump from ninth in the first heat to fifth with a strong second run, the SPEED quickest.
It was another tough race for the North American men in Germany. Austin Florian and John Daly finished 25th and 26th for the United States. Canada’s Mark Lynch and Kyle Murray finished 27th and 28th, respectively.
Matt Weston led the way for the British skeleton program. He came into the second heat in fifth place but fell back to seventh after his second run. Marcus Wyatt worked his way into the top 20 and finished 19th, while Craig Thompson missed the second run by .04 and finished 21st.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 7 | 5.00 | 4.94 | 57.02 | 56.88 | 1:53.90 |
| 2 | Axel Jungk | GER | 4 | 5.03 | 5.01 | 56.79 | 57.30 | 1:54.09 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 12 | 5.11 | 5.04 | 57.03 | 57.28 | 1:54.31 |
| 4 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 11 | 4.96 | 4.94 | 57.11 | 57.41 | 1:54.52 |
| 5 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 18 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 57.55 | 57.05 | 1:54.60 |
| 6 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 5 | 5.07 | 4.99 | 57.54 | 57.21 | 1:54.75 |
| 7 | Matt Weston | GBR | 9 | 4.98 | 4.93 | 57.34 | 57.48 | 1:54.82 |
| 8 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 14 | 5.07 | 5.08 | 57.35 | 57.49 | 1:54.84 |
| 9 | Vladislav Semenov | RUS | 13 | 5.05 | 5.03 | 57.58 | 57.30 | 1:54.88 |
| 10 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 6 | 5.10 | 5.06 | 57.53 | 57.54 | 1:55.07 |
| 11 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 20 | 5.01 | 4.98 | 57.75 | 57.47 | 1:55.22 |
| 12 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 23 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 58.00 | 57.53 | 1:55.53 |
| 13 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 15 | 4.99 | 4.98 | 57.71 | 57.95 | 1:55.66 |
| 14 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 8 | 5.15 | 5.12 | 57.82 | 57.86 | 1:55.68 |
| 15 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 22 | 5.15 | 5.16 | 57.99 | 57.77 | 1:55.76 |
| 16 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 10 | 4.95 | 4.95 | 58.07 | 57.70 | 1:55.77 |
| 17 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 16 | 4.95 | 4.92 | 58.13 | 57.83 | 1:55.96 |
| 18 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 17 | 5.08 | 5.09 | 58.19 | 57.81 | 1:56.00 |
| 19 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 19 | 5.03 | 5.02 | 58.20 | 57.91 | 1:56.11 |
| 20 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 2 | 5.27 | 5.27 | 58.22 | 58.56 | 1:56.78 |
| 21 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 1 | 4.95 | 58.26 | |||
| 22 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 24 | 5.14 | 58.41 | |||
| 23 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 21 | 4.98 | 58.61 | |||
| 24 | Mihail Enache | ROU | 27 | 5.16 | 58.68 | |||
| 25 | Austin Florian | USA | 26 | 5.08 | 58.94 | |||
| 26 | John Daly | USA | 25 | 5.30 | 58.95 | |||
| 27 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 29 | 5.26 | 59.07 | |||
| 28 | Kyle Murray | CAN | 3 | 5.23 | 59.21 | |||
| 29 | Florian Auer | AUT | 28 | 5.31 | 59.23 |
