The 2025/2026 Skeleton World Cup officially reached the second half of its season, with athletes greeted back from the Christmas break to tricky, snowy and unpredictable conditions in Winterberg, Germany for round five of seven of the season.

by Deen

Going into the weekend, Britain’s Matt Weston dominated the men’s overall standings with three wins out of four races in 2025 despite coming off a summer injury still affecting his start times. The only other winner so far this season was his teammate Marcus Wyatt, who last time out in Sigulda just edged Weston into silver. 

The women’s campaign has been a much closer affair with three athletes standing on the top step of the podium so far: Jacqueline Pfeifer, Janine Flock, and Kim Meylemans. The only double winner, Belgium’s Meylemans – who won both races in Sigulda in rounds three and four – held a narrow 41 point lead over defending World Cup champion Flock in the overall standings heading into the weekend.

Men’s race: Snow forces cancellation after first run

The men’s World Cup opened the day’s action and its first run brought very unexpected results. The snowy and windy conditions were at its peak for the first ten or so sliders, before gradually improving for later athletes. This meant the favourites for the win were at a disadvantage to those lesser ranked going off later.

After the first ten sliders, Marcus Wyatt, third overall heading into the weekend, led the field with a 59.04 run. Wyatt utilised inch-perfect lines through the top half of the track, where speed is at its lowest and any hits or skids have the greatest impact on overall time, to snatch the early lead. World Cup leader Matt Weston endured a more difficult run, sitting sixth after the opening ten sleds, 0.41 seconds behind Wyatt. Weston still finished the run just 0.03 seconds behind overall World Cup second-placed slider Yin Zheng heading into the weekend, meaning the damage was limited.

Conditions played a significant role in the early standings. There was a striking 1.47-second gap between Wyatt and the slowest of the ten sliders, Korea’s Jung Seunggi, with the first four sliders in the start order all occupying the bottom four positions. This underlined how the track was rapidly improving, with conditions continually improving and multiple leader changes occurring from lower ranked sliders.

First to snatch the lead was home hero and reigning Olympic Champion Christopher Grotheer who went out 14th due to sub-par early season results after a calf tear in the summer, utilising his trademark top speeds in the second half of the track to claim top spot by 0.09 seconds. Grotheer’s lead was short lived though, as Korea’s Kim Jisoo who went out a couple sliders after Grotheer, carried a sublime start which was the fastest in the field and an early four tenth advantage over Grotheer to take the lead by 0.13 seconds by the end. Kim held this lead until the very last slider, Austria’s Alexander Schlintner. Schlinter had a very impressive run slowly reeling in Kim’s early start advantage to snatch the run one lead right at the death by 0.05, remarking after that “luck is finally on my side.” This luck would not last long however.

The IBSF decided after the first run that conditions were not good enough and cancelled the men’s race, nullifying the first run results. At the time of the decision, the highest-ranked slider from the World Cup top ten sat only eighth, with overall leader Matt Weston down in eighteenth.

The men’s World Cup race will instead be made up with an additional event in St. Moritz on Wednesday 7 January. The team event scheduled for the evening was also cancelled due to snowfall forecasts and will not be rescheduled.

Women’s race: Supreme Janine takes control overall

First run

The women’s race managed to complete both runs in lighter snowfall, with track sweepers after every run used to keep the track consistent, leading to slightly less surprising results.

The first of the big hitters in the first run was the Olympic test event winner and 2018 Olympic silver medallist Pfeifer. Pfeifer put down a sublime run, using her excellent driving and height to clock what would end up being the highest top speed at the end of the run, stopping the clock at a 60.58. Her lead would not last long, however, as Austria’s Janine Flock was next up.

Flock flew down the track, starting just a fraction slower than Pfeifer but immediately going into the lead with a perfect zero curve. Flock continued slowly building the gap with no visible corrections to speak of. She reached an advantage of 0.21 by the penultimate time split, ultimately losing a fraction in the final split to hold a 0.20 advantage over Pfeifer after run one.

The big casualty after the opening heat was Dutch superstar Kimberly Bos, the reigning World Champion. Bos bled tons of time on every timesplit despite no visible major errors, suggesting runner choices for the sled were wrong, perhaps setting up and expecting a heavier snow race. Bos ultimately finished a massive 1.4 seconds back in 23rd, only just making the top 25 cut to get a second run.

Following Bos, the next five sliders including overall World Cup leader Meylemans could not get within two-thirds of a second of Flock. The final starter in the top ten was Czechia’s Anna Fernstädt, also a lean glider like Flock and Pfeifer, that makes her speed in the second half of the track. Fernstädt recovered from a slow start to finish in third with great lines down the track, but a big 0.47 margin back.

The most serious challenges to Flock came later in the order. USA world silver medalist Mystique Ro blasted out of the start with the second-fastest push of the field, immediately taking 0.21 seconds out of Flock and extending that lead to 0.33 by halfway. Although Flock clawed time back late on, Ro’s clean slide saw her hold a narrow 0.04-second lead at the finish.

Great Britain’s Freya Tarbit, a winner in similar conditions in Pyeongchang last season, followed immediately after. Despite conceding time to Ro early on, Tarbit’s smoother lower section allowed her to close the gap progressively, finishing just 0.02 seconds behind Ro and 0.02 ahead of Flock.

Italy’s Valentina Margaglio was the final slider to feature prominently in the opening run, using the third-fastest start to climb into fifth place, 0.38 seconds adrift.

After run one Ro, Tarbit and Flock were separated by just 0.04 with all three having a chance of winning the race in run two. Pfeifer was not out of it at 0.24 back while Margaglio and Fernstädt completed the top six, hoping for mistakes from others to challenge for the podium. Of note, overall World Cup leader Meylemans sat in eighth, out of medal contention and as it stood, she would leave Winterberg just a single point ahead of Flock in the standings.

Second run

The second run went off in reverse order of the first run results and proved just as difficult for Kimberly Bos. Many expected the reigning World Champion to recover places in the second run but what happened was the opposite. Another bizarrely slow run, despite no obvious errors, saw her slip to 24th, marking her worst World Cup result in six years.

Elsewhere, changes through the field were limited, with attention firmly focused on the battle among the top eight, including yellow-bib wearer and World Cup leader Kim Meylemans. Meylemans had a slightly better run, with a cleaner middle section moving her up one spot to seventh. Would this be enough to retain the yellow bib and could she move up any further?

Next up was Fernstädt who held a 0.20 advantage over Meylemans after run one. A 0.18 slower start compared to the Belgian meant her first run work was almost completely eradicated, however an excellent zero curve meant she did not bleed any more time. As she flew down the track on her strongest section, her advantage rapidly increased to a 0.52 aggregate by the end. She became the first woman of the weekend to dip below the minute mark on a run with a 59.98. This was a strong medal challenging effort.

Following her was Margaglio who once again pushed the third fastest start. Her greater early velocity meant halfway through her run she increased her aggregate advantage from 0.13 to 0.43. However, slightly late exits off a few corners meant her advantage was slipping away, losing her lead at the very last check by 0.08. A top six was guaranteed for Margaglio though, her best result in almost two years and a welcome confidence boost before a home Olympic Games.

Pfeifer was next up with a 0.27 lead over Fernstädt. But Pfeifer’s run was not as good as her first, with an aggressive take on the zero curve and a tap into corner six robbing her of some vital speed. This ultimately meant she fell 0.19 behind Fernstädt, losing two spots and moving the Czech athlete up to at least fourth.

Now there were three, all covered by just 0.04. Flock was up first, holding a 0.47 advantage over Fernstädt, knowing if she gained just one spot she would overtake Meylemans as the series leader. A decent start and curve zero meant her 0.47 was all intact. From there, Flock started building the time with a stunning rest of the run, doing what no other athlete could do by extending the advantage over Fernstädt as the run went on. Ultimately ending up 0.61 faster than Fernstädt and putting massive pressure on the remaining two sliders.

Tarbit was up first. A shocking push time of 0.09 slower than her first heat as well as early mistakes, taps and skids quickly ended her podium challenge. Tarbit slipped a full second back and finished fifth with one to go. Fernstädt took the podium but Tarbit got a wider podium spot as consolation.

Then there was one. Mystique Ro blasted out of the blocks using her start advantage over Flock to extend the 0.04 gap to 0.32 after the first two checkpoints. But, from there the gap slowly shrank and shrank, with a toe correction at the 360 degree Kreisel corner robbing her of some crucial speed. In the end, her advantage disappeared at the penultimate checkpoint, finishing the run at a 0.38 aggregate behind Flock. Not enough for Gold but earning her first podium finish off the season with a silver.

A superb second run from Flock sealed her second win of the season and moved her into control of the overall World Cup standings by 16 points.

Results and standings

Women	Slider	Country	Time	Gap
1st	Janine Flock	Austria	2:00.22
2nd	Mystique Ro	United States	2:00.60	+0.38s
3rd	Anna Fernstädt	Czech Republic	2:00.83	+0.61s
4th	Valentina Margaglio	Italy	2:00.91	+0.69s
5th	Jacqueline Pfeifer	Germany	2:01.02	+0.80s
6th	Freya Tarbit	Great Britain	2:01.22	+1.00s
7th	Kim Meylemans	Belgium	2:01.35	+1.13s
8th=	Nicole Silveira	Brazil	2:01.71	+1.49s
8th=	Tabitha Stoecker	Great Britain	2:01.71	+1.49s
10th	Kendall Wesenberg	United States	2:01.81	+1.59s

Women	Slider	Country	Points	Gap
1st	Janine Flock	Austria	1034
2nd	Kim Meylemans	Belgium	1018	-16
3rd	Jacqueline Pfeifer	Germany	929	-105
4th	Anna Fernstädt	Czech Republic	914	-120
5th	Tabitha Stoecker	Great Britain	868	-166
6th	Hannah Neise	Germany	796	-238
7th	Susanne Kreher	Germany	696	-338
8th	Kimberly Bos	Netherlands	693	-341
9th	Amelia Coltman	Great Britain	672	-362
10th	Freya Tarbit	Great Britain	664	-370

Next up: St. Moritz!

The Skeleton World Cup season continues next week in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the birthplace of sliding sports. The men contest their rescheduled race on Wednesday 7 January, before the next World Cup – doubling as the European Championships – takes place at the same venue on Friday 9 January for the men, women and the mixed team event.