The German skeleton women celebrated a double success at the competition premiere of the new Olympic track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. At the start of the Olympic season, Jacqueline Pfeifer from RSG Hochsauerland won after two runs by 0.23 seconds ahead of Beijing Olympic champion Hannah Neise from BSC Winterberg. Belgian Kim Meylemans came third.
For the 30-year-old Pfeifer, Olympic silver medalist in Pyeongchang 2018, it was the first World Cup victory in almost four years. She recorded her first victory in 2017 in Altenberg, the last one was a while ago in January 2021 at Königssee. “Awesome, it feels very good, I can’t really believe it. I haven’t felt it for a long time, but it feels good,” said the 2017 world champion after her 14th World Cup victory.
“It went much better than expected, I didn’t do so well in training, I’m super happy,” said second-placed Neise. Former world champion Susanne Kreher from Dresdner SC came in twelfth place ahead of Corinna Leipold from WSV Königssee.
Men just missed the podium
The German skeleton men narrowly missed the podium. However, two-time junior world champion Lukas Nydegger from RC Berchtesgaden achieved his best World Cup result with fourth place. In the end, five hundredths of a second were missing from the podium. “It’s really nice, I’m happy, I’ll see what happens,” he said with a view to the Olympic season.
Beijing Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer from BRC Thuringia, who had problems at the start after an injury during preparation, had to settle for 15th place when Briton Matt Weston won. “At the start I relaxed because of the injuries, but it was okay,” said Grotheer, who slipped heavily in the flat section at the top. World Cup third-placed Axel Jungk from Dresdner SC finished sixth with a good start. Felix Keisinger from WSV Königssee came 13th.