From Lillehammer, NOR
(December 13, 2025) – Lillehammer is known as a track that’s going to give you some close racing, and it did not disappoint in the first of two four-man races in Norway.
Francesco Friedrich led Johannes Lochner by just .04 in the first heat, with teammate Adam Ammour sitting in third despite a slightly bumpy run down the 1994 Olympic track. In the second heat Ammour and his team cleaned up their start and Ammour slid to the lead handily to guarantee Germany a gold no matter what happened next.
What did happen next was Lochner sliding to the lead with the quick run of the heat. In search of his third straight four-man victory in Lillehammer, Lochner’s team gave him the second quickest start of the heat and he put down a nearly flawless drive to take over in the leader’s box.
Friedrich’s team pushed off with a 4.90, the quickest of the second heat,a nd throughout his drive it looked like Friedrich would stay in front. However, a little trouble late killed his speed and late in the run and the reigning Olympic champion slid to second behind Lochner but just ahead of Ammour.
The win was Lochner’s 16th World Cup four-man victory, while the silver for Friedrich was the 65th medal in his illustrious career.
Italy’s Patrick Baumgartner’s team gave him a start that put him even with Michael Vogt off the top and kept him even nearly all the way through. He found some speed at the bottom to solidify a fourth place finish, with Vogt up to fifth from sixth after the first heat.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall and South Korea’s Jinsu Kim came into the second heat tied for seventh with matching 50.07 downtimes. They remained tied, eventually for sixth, with matching 1:40.38 combined downtimes.
Kris Horn led the way for the United States with a 15th finish. Geoff Gadbois was early off in both heats on his way to a 20th finish. Frank Del Duca was unable to overcome a late start draw and finished tied for 21st with Romania’s Mihai Tentea.
Canada had a strong day in Lillehammer, led by Pat Norton in ninth. Teammate Taylor Austin finished tw0 places back, just outside of the top ten in 11th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lochner / Margis / Wenzel / Fleischhauer | GER | 7 | 4.89 | 4.92 | 49.81 | 50.07 | 1:39.88 |
| 2 | Friedrich / Sommer / Schüller / Straub | GER | 5 | 4.90 | 4.90 | 49.77 | 50.25 | 1:40.02 |
| 3 | Ammour / Ammour / Tasche / Schaller | GER | 9 | 4.89 | 4.92 | 49.89 | 50.15 | 1:40.04 |
| 4 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Mircea / Bilotti | ITA | 8 | 4.98 | 4.99 | 49.95 | 50.27 | 1:40.22 |
| 5 | Vogt / Hufschmid / Haas / Ndiaye | SUI | 11 | 5.01 | 4.99 | 50.00 | 50.33 | 1:40.33 |
| 6 | Kim / Kim / Chae / Lee | KOR | 6 | 4.92 | 4.93 | 50.07 | 50.31 | 1:40.38 |
| 6 | Hall / Simons / Greenwood / Cackett | GBR | 10 | 4.97 | 5.01 | 50.07 | 50.31 | 1:40.38 |
| 8 | Follador / Matossi / Vögele / Juillard | SUI | 4 | 5.02 | 5.04 | 49.98 | 50.42 | 1:40.40 |
| 9 | Norton / Stoikos / Zanette / Ohrt | CAN | 3 | 5.03 | 5.04 | 50.10 | 50.31 | 1:40.41 |
| 10 | Wesselink / Franjic / Franjic / Koster | NED | 18 | 4.97 | 4.95 | 50.27 | 50.20 | 1:40.47 |
| 11 | Austin / Murray-Lawrence / Evelyn O’Higgins / Eskrick-Parkinson | CAN | 19 | 4.98 | 5.01 | 50.25 | 50.26 | 1:40.51 |
| 12 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Riou / Hauterville | FRA | 15 | 5.00 | 4.99 | 50.28 | 50.25 | 1:40.53 |
| 13 | Grantins / Ungurs / Kaufmanis / Klava | LAT | 23 | 5.00 | 4.97 | 50.50 | 50.09 | 1:40.59 |
| 14 | Treichl / Stepan / Bertschler / Sares | AUT | 13 | 4.96 | 4.96 | 50.36 | 50.31 | 1:40.67 |
| 15 | Horn / Vissering / Powell / Furnell | USA | 12 | 4.93 | 4.96 | 50.18 | 50.54 | 1:40.72 |
| 16 | Rohner / Jones / Annen / Hersperger | SUI | 17 | 5.08 | 5.12 | 50.35 | 50.39 | 1:40.74 |
| 17 | Sun / Zhang / Shi /An | CHN | 14 | 4.93 | 5.01 | 50.27 | 50.48 | 1:40.75 |
| 18 | Kalenda / Kaufmanis / Bebriss / Miknis | LAT | 16 | 4.96 | 4.96 | 50.53 | 50.25 | 1:40.78 |
| 18 | Mandlbauer / Hanschitz / Nichols-Bardi / Zech | AUT | 2 | 5.02 | 5.08 | 50.18 | 50.60 | 1:40.78 |
| 20 | Gadbois / Abdul-Saboor / Rager / Cheek | USA | 1 | 5.05 | 5.05 | 50.41 | 50.66 | 1:41.07 |
| 21 | Tentea / Dinescu / Nica / Pacioianu | ROU | 21 | 5.07 | 50.54 | |||
| 21 | Del Duca / Williamson / Niederhofer / Sosoo | USA | 22 | 4.98 | 50.54 | |||
| 23 | Li / Jiang / Ye / Ren | CHN | 20 | 4.99 | 50.67 | |||
| 24 | Behounek / Dobes / Rapp / Wijas | CZE | 24 | 5.08 | 50.83 | |||
| 25 | Zakrzewski / Sosna/ Jakobczyk / Sarnecki | POL | 25 | 5.11 | 51.08 | |||
| 26 | Edelman / Chen / Zalesky / Fawareh | ISR | 26 | 5.18 | 51.09 |