Berlin – With his old sled, skeleton pilot Christopher Grotheer is clearly on course for gold at halftime and could defeat the Olympic curse of the German men. Since the sport was reintroduced into the Olympic program in 2002, they have always come away empty-handed. But now the two-time world champion with a track record of 1:00.00 minutes sent a clear signal to the competition in the first round. At half time, the 29-year-old from BRC Thüringen has a 0.70 second lead over Axel Jungk from BSC Oberbärenburg, who is second overall in the World Cup. Third is the Chinese Yan Wengang, the Winterberger Alexander Gassner ninth.
“I feel good, skipped training yesterday because I wanted to be fresh in my head. I dropped a real pound in the first heat to shock the competition,” said Grotheer. Now on Friday (4th round 2.55 p.m. CET) he could achieve the first German Olympic victory in this discipline, after Jacqueline Lölling won silver in 2018 and Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Selbach (formerly Huber) won silver and bronze in 2010. So far there has not been an Olympic medal for the men.
His recipe for success is simple. He simply changed his sled, put the new one in the corner and took his old one again. “He’s running, I’ve made a really big leap from the training week to now. It fits really well in terms of speed. I don’t even have to drive flawlessly to have a chance. This buffer is really good,” said the native of Wernigerode, who finished eighth at his Olympic premiere in Pyeongchang.
He only really put the turbo into his career in 2020, when he won the world championship title for the first time on the demanding track in Altenberg. Curious: In that season he did not qualify for the World Cup team, in the end he became world champion. He repeated this feat a year later in the Ore Mountains. “The two World Championship titles gave me a lot of security,” said the former ski jumper, who has competed in the World Cup since 2012.
Jungk, who tested positive for the corona virus after the World Cup final in St. Moritz and had major problems entering China, is also a promising second in the race. “I’d rather be closer to Christopher, but he’s just outstanding,” said the Saxon, who has a runner on the sled that he “has never ridden in his life”. His setup on the sled is risky but fast. “I drive absolutely at the limit, but I want to have that great feeling again that everything fits from top to bottom.”