From Lillehammer, NOR
(November 24, 2025) – In a scene seen frequently over the past few seasons, Germany dominated the two-man Europe Cup season opener as they took the top four positions in the race.
Max Illmann and Lukas Koller tied for the quick start of the first heat and slid to a .1 second lead over teammates Hans Peter Hannighofer and Henrik Bosse. Behind them, the team of Laurin Zern and David Steube sat third and Alexander Dzudaj and Bruno Götzel fourth.
The second heat saw further German domination. Czudaj slid to the lead ahead of China’s Yulu Guo and Jie Sun to guarantee Germany a gold medal. Zern then slid to a matching second heat time to take the lead from Czudaj. Hannighofer then took over from Zern.
The final slider off in the second heat was Illmann, who once again had a strong start paired with the best slide of the heat to take gold by .42 over Hannighofer and .51 over Zern. Czudaj was fourth, with Guo in fifth nearly a full second behind Czudaj.
Switzerland’s Nils Reich and Joshua Eichenberger rounded out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Illmann / Koller | GER | 12 | 5.06 | 5.08 | 50.56 | 50.64 | 1:41.20 |
| 2 | Hannighofer / Bosse | GER | 8 | 5.07 | 5.10 | 50.66 | 50.96 | 1:41.62 |
| 3 | Zern / Steube | GER | 5 | 5.07 | 5.08 | 50.73 | 50.98 | 1:41.71 |
| 4 | Czudaj / Götzel | GER | 4 | 5.09 | 5.05 | 50.94 | 50.98 | 1:41.92 |
| 5 | Guo / Sun | CHN | 6 | 5.06 | 5.04 | 51.40 | 51.51 | 1:42.91 |
| 6 | Reich / Eichenberger | SUI | 10 | 5.17 | 5.22 | 51.46 | 51.91 | 1:43.37 |
| 7 | Baechler / Laporal | FRA | 11 | 5.23 | 5.24 | 51.80 | 51.78 | 1:43.58 |
| 8 | Rohn / Juillard | SUI | 9 | 5.34 | 5.34 | 51.80 | 51.84 | 1:43.64 |
| 9 | Felder / Maly | SUI | 17 | 5.33 | 5.35 | 51.91 | 52.03 | 1:43.94 |
| 10 | Scherrer / Matthys | SUI | 13 | 5.34 | 5.42 | 51.96 | 52.12 | 1:44.08 |
| 10 | Vatrican / Ferri | MON | 15 | 5.15 | 5.17 | 52.06 | 52.02 | 1:44.08 |
| 12 | Pals / Bante | NED | 3 | 5.37 | 5.39 | 52.20 | 52.07 | 1:44.27 |
| 13 | Diouf / Afagbegee | FRA | 7 | 5.19 | 5.27 | 52.10 | 52.19 | 1:44.29 |
| 14 | Sletten / Grothe | NOR | 1 | 5.51 | 5.54 | 52.14 | 52.26 | 1:44.40 |
| 15 | Zhao / Li | CHN | 14 | 5.30 | 5.34 | 52.45 | 52.44 | 1:44.89 |
| 16 | Boteff wallace / Minazio | FRA | 2 | 5.45 | 5.51 | 53.16 | 53.27 | 1:46.43 |
| 17 | Bottin / Creuzevault | MON | 16 | 5.42 | 5.39 | 53.46 | 53.73 | 1:47.19 |
| 18 | Fojuth / Oliwko | POL | 18 | 5.83 | 5.74 | 54.66 | 54.41 | 1:49.07 |