From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 14, 2022) – Unlike the women’s skeleton race earlier in the day, the men’s race was a bit of a blowout. Also unlike the women’s race, the winner and World Cup champion had won a time or two before.
Latvia’s Martins Dukurs had the quick time in both heats on his way to victory in St. Moritz. In the first heat he had a .42 advantage over Germany’s Christopher Grotheer, with Alexander Gassner only .03 behind Grotheer in third. On the second run Gassner leapfrogged Grotheer with the quickest time of the heat.
Dukurs answered, tying that quick time of the heat to give himself gold by .45 over Gassner, with Grotheer in third. The gold was Dukurs’ 61st in World Cup action, and his eighth in St. Moritz.
Coming into the race the World Cup points were relatively tight, with Axel Jungk and Grotheer both contending for the overall title. Dukurs’ win solidified that top spot, while Grotheer’s bronze medal left him third overall.
Germany’s Axel Jungk needed some help from Martins Dukurs if he wanted to win the World Cup title. While he didn’t get that help, he did have a strong second run after popping the groove in the first heat to finish tied for fourth with Nikita Tregubov. That fourth place finish put him second overall, just four points ahead of Grotheer.
Russia’s Vladislav Semenov finished the race in sixth.
After the race Dukurs was elated.
“This is amazing,” Dukurs told IBSF television. “The World Cup overall was pretty tight. It was challenging and I was motivated to do as best as I could in training. From a spectator’s side I think it’s what we need!”
The title for Dukurs was his 11th World Cup title.
Austin Florian was the top American finisher with a 18th place finish, up from 20th in the first heat. Andrew Blaser struggled in his second World Cup race in St. Moritz and finished 26th.
The Canadians also put one slider in the top 20. Blake Enzie finished 19th in his third World Cup race, a career-best, while Evan Neufeldt finished 27th from the first starting position.
Great Britain’s men had a mixed result. Matt Weston entered the second heat tied for tenth with Alexander Tretiakov and eventually finished ninth. Marcus Wyatt was tied with Olympic champion Sungbin Yun for 17th in the first heat before finishing 20th, while Craig Thompson finished 23rd.
Yun jumped up from 17th to finish tenth with the sixth quickest run of the second heat.
Spain’s Ander Mirambell had the top speed at the bottom of the track, but a slower start hampered him and left him tied for 24th. New North American Cup champ Nick Timmings finished 28th in just his second visit to St. Moritz.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 11 | 4.84 | 4.84 | 67.01 | 67.38 | 2:14.39 |
| 2 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 5 | 4.99 | 4.96 | 67.46 | 67.38 | 2:14.84 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 10 | 4.95 | 4.92 | 67.43 | 67.47 | 2:14.90 |
| 4 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 6 | 4.96 | 4.92 | 67.62 | 67.42 | 2:15.04 |
| 4 | Axel Jungk | GER | 8 | 4.91 | 4.95 | 67.53 | 67.51 | 2:15.04 |
| 6 | Vladislav Semenov | RUS | 13 | 4.94 | 4.92 | 67.60 | 67.45 | 2:15.05 |
| 7 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 4 | 4.97 | 4.94 | 67.69 | 67.43 | 2:15.12 |
| 8 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 9 | 4.83 | 4.87 | 67.78 | 67.47 | 2:15.25 |
| 9 | Matt Weston | GBR | 7 | 4.84 | 4.83 | 67.78 | 67.74 | 2:15.52 |
| 10 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 14 | 4.83 | 4.87 | 68.20 | 67.46 | 2:15.66 |
| 11 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 20 | 5.01 | 5.06 | 67.84 | 67.83 | 2:15.67 |
| 12 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 21 | 4.97 | 4.97 | 67.94 | 67.79 | 2:15.73 |
| 13 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 12 | 4.81 | 4.79 | 68.15 | 67.67 | 2:15.82 |
| 14 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 16 | 4.78 | 4.81 | 67.72 | 68.17 | 2:15.89 |
| 15 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 15 | 5.07 | 5.11 | 67.46 | 68.50 | 2:15.96 |
| 16 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 17 | 4.86 | 4.91 | 68.09 | 67.92 | 2:16.01 |
| 17 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 18 | 5.00 | 5.07 | 67.91 | 68.24 | 2:16.15 |
| 18 | Austin Florian | USA | 30 | 4.92 | 4.89 | 68.28 | 68.18 | 2:16.46 |
| 19 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 26 | 4.97 | 4.98 | 68.24 | 68.31 | 2:16.55 |
| 20 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 19 | 4.87 | 4.90 | 68.20 | 68.44 | 2:16.64 |
| 21 | Mihail Enache | ROU | 28 | 5.02 | 68.31 | |||
| 22 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 2 | 4.87 | 68.38 | |||
| 23 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 25 | 4.80 | 68.40 | |||
| 24 | Nathan Crumpton | ASA | 23 | 5.00 | 68.42 | |||
| 24 | Ander Mirambell | ESP | 27 | 5.32 | 68.42 | |||
| 26 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 22 | 4.99 | 68.47 | |||
| 27 | Evan Neufeldt | CAN | 1 | 5.03 | 68.64 | |||
| 28 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 24 | 5.02 | 68.84 | |||
| 29 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 29 | 5.03 | 69.10 | |||
| 30 | Rin Kinoshita | JPN | 31 | 4.85 | 69.40 | |||
| 31 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 32 | 5.07 | 69.42 | |||
| DNS | Jean Jacques Buff | SUI | 3 | DNS |
