From Winterberg, GER
(December 7, 2025) – For the first time in a few years, Germany did not start the World Cup team relay season as the reigning champions. However, a confident and quick team slid to gold in the season opener in Winterberg.
Poland led off and put down four consistent runs to set the time to beat early on. Romania was next, but Corina Buzatoiu hit the gate before it opened and that contact gave the team a disqualification.
Ukraine fell behind early but rallied to keep it close to Poland, but the Poles once again were too strong.
A young Italian team was next. With the senior sliders all out of the races this weekend, it was up to the younger, less experienced Italian program to try to keep the team in the fight. A few mistakes early on set them back, and the nation fell behind Ukraine with three to go.
Latvia’s Elina Bota put down the quick women’s run of the race. Doubles team Martins Bots and Roberts Plume weren’t perfect and gave up just a bit of time back to Poland, before Kristers Aparjods and the team of Anda Upite and Madara Pavlova slid to a one second lead over the Polish squad to guarantee a medal for Latvia.
Germany was next. Looking to avenge a season where they’d not won the overall title, Merle Fräbel put down a strong first run. Her effort was then matched by Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, who cleaned up a bumpy run in their second heat on Saturday to give Germany the advantage. The nation held serve across both Felix Loch and the team of Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal’s runs to give Germany a 1.6 second lead over the Latvians with Austria still to come.
For the first time ever, Austria entered the opening race of the World Cup season as the reigning champions. Hannah Prock, fresh off her first gold medal earlier in the day, had a great Labyrinth to keep it close with Germany. Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf held serve, but Jonas Müller couldn’t quite match Loch’s effort. Selina Egle and Lara Kipp were unable to close the gap to the Germans and Austria would take silver, with Germany golden and Latvia bronze.
Afterward, the Germans were predictably all smiles.
“This was a good team performance today, ” Tobias Wendl told FIL TV after the race. “Everyone had good runs, and when that happens the German power shows it’s strength!”
Despite the silver, the Austrians had few complaints with their performance.
“We had a really great weekend,” said Juri Gatt. “We tried to put everything together in the team relay. We had some problems, but we’re happy with second place today”
Poland took fourth, Ukraine fifth and Italy sixth, with Romania disqualified for their false start.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Women | M-Doubles | Men | W-Doubles |
| 1 | Fräbel / Wendl & Arlt / Loch / Degenhardt & Rosenthal | GER | 6 | 48.768 | 1:36.849 | 2:24.467 | 3:13.155 |
| 2 | Prock / Gatt & Schöpf / Müller / Egle & Kipp | AUT | 7 | 48.825 | 1:37.086 | 2:24.862 | 3:13.784 |
| 3 | Bota / Bots & Plume / Aparjods / Upite & Pavlova | LAT | 5 | 48.610 | 1:37.092 | 2:25.117 | 3:14.796 |
| 4 | Domaradzka / Chmielewski & Gancarczyk / Sochowicz / Domowicz & Piwkowska | POL | 1 | 49.220 | 1:37.509 | 2:25.719 | 3:15.777 |
| 5 | Smaha / Hoi & Kachmar / Mandziy / Stetskiv & Mokh | UKR | 3 | 49.321 | 1:38.410 | 2:26.743 | 3:16.275 |
| 6 | Oberstolz / Brunner & Weissensteiner / Haselrieder / Falkensteiner & Huber | ITA | 4 | 49.043 | 1:37.652 | 2:25.864 | 3:16.380 |
| DSQ | Buzatoiu / Handaric & Motzca / Cretu / Stramaturaru & Manolescu | ROU | 2 | DSQ |