From Winterberg, GER
(December 6, 2025) – It’s a new season for the FIL World Cup, but set of familiar faces were atop the podium in Winterberg.
Germany’s Felix Loch and Max Langenhan, as well as Austria’s Jonas Müller all found themselves battling for gold to start the season, with Loch coming out on top.
Müller, one half of Friday’s Mixed Singles gold medal team alongside Lisa Schulte, picked off teammate Nico Gleirscher to slide into the medals with Germany’s Max Langenhan and Felix Loch still to go in a second run with heavy fog blanketing the top two thirds of the track.
Langenhan was next. His slide looked like it matched Müller’s run curve for curve, but the speed wasn’t there for the world champion as he fell behind Müller by a little under two tenths.
That left Loch as the last German with a chance to win gold in Winterberg. The three-time Olympic gold medalist made a few small mistakes early and came back to the Austrian, as close as a five hundredths of a second. He showed poise late though and crossed the line just .09 ahead of Müller to win gold to start the season.
Müller, the 2023 world champ, was second while Langenhan took bronze.
Despite the mixed weather, the conditions didn’t affect Loch.
“The conditions with snow, rain, snow, rain, it was different to yesterday,” Loch said after the race. “I had a really good setup today and had two really good starts and two really good runs. I know Jonas had a brilliant run and I had to fight, but I’m back in first place! Perfect weekend!”
For Müller, the warmer conditions suited him a bit better than the previous day where he found the track a bit more skiddy.
Jonas: “Today it’s a little warmer, ice is softer, so we kept everything like ti was yesterday with the setup and it worked out,” Müller said. “My first start wasn’t that great, second start was really good and that’s how I got the second spot today.”
Like Müller, Langenhan found himself a bit off in the Mixed Singles race on Friday, but felt like the track came to him on Saturday.
“Today was way better than yesterday,” he said. “Today I had a few little mistakes but the start was way better for me. I think in the second run the entrance of Krisel, in the first run late i had little skids that just cost so much time.”
Austrians Nico Gleirscher, Wolfgang Kindl, and Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods rounded out the top six.
Neither Canadian made the second heat in Winterberg. Theo Downey missed out on a top 20 by one spot in 21st, while teammate Cole Zajansky was 24th.
The field was a bit smaller than usual with a few teams opting to skip the Winterberg race due to it not paying Olympic qualification points. Athletes from the United States opted to stay in America, while the Italians were in Cortina d’Ampezzo training.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Felix Loch | GER | 14 | 3.836 | 3.801 | 51.750 | 51.410 | 1:43.160 |
| 2 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 13 | 3.849 | 3.818 | 51.835 | 51.415 | 1:43.245 |
| 3 | Max Langenhan | GER | 15 | 3.835 | 3.808 | 51.816 | 51.612 | 1:43.428 |
| 4 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 6 | 3.837 | 3.827 | 51.881 | 51.579 | 1:43.460 |
| 5 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 17 | 3.868 | 3.867 | 51.979 | 51.644 | 1:43.623 |
| 6 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 12 | 3.846 | 3.823 | 52.097 | 51.600 | 1:43.697 |
| 7 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 16 | 3.846 | 3.845 | 52.018 | 51.830 | 1:43.848 |
| 8 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 8 | 3.838 | 3.838 | 52.149 | 51.824 | 1:43.973 |
| 9 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 9 | 3.878 | 3.873 | 52.285 | 51.736 | 1:44.021 |
| 10 | David Nößler | GER | 5 | 3.872 | 3.849 | 52.339 | 51.849 | 1:44.188 |
| 11 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 3 | 3.874 | 3.858 | 52.258 | 51.949 | 1:44.207 |
| 12 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 4 | 3.887 | 3.860 | 52.360 | 51.907 | 1:44.267 |
| 13 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 7 | 3.861 | 3.856 | 52.311 | 51.965 | 1:44.276 |
| 14 | Leon Haselrieder | ITA | 20 | 3.913 | 3.881 | 52.511 | 51.934 | 1:44.445 |
| 15 | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 11 | 3.900 | 3.891 | 52.358 | 52.268 | 1:44.626 |
| 16 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 1 | 3.881 | 3.870 | 52.608 | 52.081 | 1:44.689 |
| 17 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 2 | 3.928 | 3.909 | 52.685 | 52.087 | 1:44.772 |
| 18 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 10 | 3.843 | 3.816 | 52.544 | 52.309 | 1:44.853 |
| 19 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 24 | 3.878 | 3.865 | 52.671 | 52.234 | 1:44.905 |
| 20 | Ondrej Hyman | CZE | 23 | 3.896 | 3.891 | 52.754 | 52.364 | 1:45.118 |
| 21 | Theo Downey | CAN | 19 | 3.906 | 52.826 | |||
| 22 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 18 | 3.908 | 52.848 | |||
| 23 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 22 | 3.912 | 52.914 | |||
| 24 | Cole Anthony Zajanski | CAN | 26 | 3.870 | 52.982 | |||
| 25 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 27 | 3.914 | 53.069 | |||
| 26 | Mirza Nikolajev | BIH | 25 | 3.917 | 53.074 | |||
| 27 | Rasmus Moberg | SWE | 21 | 3.865 | 53.193 | |||
| 28 | Arkadiusz Trojga | POL | 28 | 3.947 | 53.667 | |||
| 29 | Nikola Boban | CRO | 29 | 4.009 | 54.078 | |||
| 30 | Luka Mtchedliani | GEO | 30 | 4.001 | 54.454 |