From Whistler, CAN
(November 11, 2022) – Austin Florian gave the United States’ its second skeleton gold medal of the day, winning gold in Whistler’s North American Cup event a few hours after teammate Mystique Ro took gold in Lillehammer.
Florian was the class of the field in the first heat, setting the quick time off the top and the fast time at every split on his way to a .23 second lead over Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych. On the second run Florian’s time was edged out by Austria’s Florian Auer, but still was plenty quick enough in the first to hold onto gold in Whistler, .30 ahead of the big Ukrainian over two runs.
The gold for Florian was his career second NAC gold, while the silver for Heraskevych was his third straight medal in NAC action, having won gold and silver in his two other races in Whistler in 2018.
Auer’s heat-quickest second run was enough to keep him ahead of teammate Alexander Schlintner, who finished fourth. Canadian Mark Lynch rounded out the top five in fifth, while Ireland’s Brendan Doyle finished sixth.
It was a strong day for the Canadian men on home ice, with Ryan Kuehn and David Park tying for seventh, just ahead of the United States’ Andrew Blaser in ninth.
Jeremiah Huo rounded out the Canadian effort in 13th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Austin Florian | USA | 12 | 4.53 | 4.53 | 53.04 | 53.33 | 1:46.37 |
| 2 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 11 | 4.73 | 4.73 | 53.27 | 53.40 | 1:46.67 |
| 3 | Florian Auer | AUT | 7 | 4.74 | 4.74 | 53.41 | 53.32 | 1:46.73 |
| 4 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 8 | 4.63 | 4.67 | 53.45 | 53.41 | 1:46.86 |
| 5 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 6 | 4.71 | 4.77 | 53.53 | 53.47 | 1:47.00 |
| 6 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 4 | 4.69 | 4.71 | 53.55 | 53.76 | 1:47.31 |
| 7 | David Park | CAN | 3 | 4.59 | 4.59 | 53.88 | 54.14 | 1:48.02 |
| 7 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 5 | 4.64 | 4.65 | 54.06 | 53.96 | 1:48.02 |
| 9 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 9 | 4.75 | 4.73 | 54.06 | 54.06 | 1:48.12 |
| 10 | Sebastian Zeleznik | CZE | 2 | 4.78 | 4.79 | 53.62 | 54.63 | 1:48.25 |
| 11 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 1 | 4.82 | 4.85 | 56.15 | 55.37 | 1:51.52 |
| 12 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 10 | 4.74 | 4.68 | 54.51 | 57.29 | 1:51.80 |
| 13 | Jeremiah Huo | CAN | 16 | 4.89 | 4.91 | 55.51 | 56.57 | 1:52.08 |
| 14 | Chun-Hung Chiang | TPE | 13 | 5.08 | 5.10 | 58.04 | 58.47 | 1:56.51 |
| 15 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 14 | 5.37 | 5.37 | 60.02 | 58.38 | 1:58.40 |
| 16 | Eloy Fernandez | ESP | 15 | 4.96 | 5.13 | 57.83 | 69.90 | 2:03.73 |
