From Lake Placid, USA
(December 20, 2025) – There’s not much that Felix Loch hasn’t done in his sliding career. He’s won gold medals in the Olympics, and World Championships, he’s won basically everywhere.
He’d even won a World Championship in Lake Placid, but he’d never won a World Cup men’s singles gold over the course of his illustrious career.
That finally changed on Saturday, as Loch held off teammate Max Langenhan for his first ever World Cup win in Lake Placid.
Loch slid to a .050 lead over Langenhan, with Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods in the hunt in third with a handful of Austrians out of the top three looking in.
Wolfgang Kindl took the lead from Austrian teammate Nico Gleirscher, and then held it as Jonas Müller couldn’t quite match his two run time. Aparjods was next, and was ahead early, but trouble midway through his run dropped him behind both Kindl and Müller with the two Germans to go.
Langenhan was next and threw down a big second effort to pick off Kindl and ostensibly put pressure on Loch with what was the quickest run of the second heat.
But Loch wouldn’t be denied. His start was .013 quicker than his first, and while his second slide wasn’t quite as quick as his first, it was still enough to take gold medal number 54 of his career and World Cup win number one in Lake Placid.
Previously, he’d won a world championship in 2009 in Lake Placid, but that had been it. Needless to say, he was elated.
“Today I had a really good sled and setup,” Loch said. “My first run here this week I crashed and now I’m on the podium! It can’t be better, it’s an amazing day!”
The track had been tough all day, and for Langenhan, he was happy with his finish.
“For me I think I had trouble from 10 to 14, in both runs I made too many mistakes there,” he said. “In the end I think you saw a lot of people had trouble and I’ll take a second place here!”
Müller finished fourth, Aparjods fifth, and Nico Gleirscher sixth.
The United States’ men couldn’t quite match the success of their women’s luge teammates. Jonny Gustafson and Tucker West both made it into the top ten, with Gustafson eighth and West ninth. Hunter Harris and Matt Greiner both missed the second heat in 22nd and 26th, respectively.
Australia’s Alex Ferlazzo finished 11th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Felix Loch | GER | 17 | 6.413 | 6.400 | 50.858 | 50.908 | 1:41.766 |
| 2 | Max Langenhan | GER | 16 | 6.383 | 6.331 | 50.920 | 50.900 | 1:41.820 |
| 3 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 15 | 6.500 | 6.470 | 51.067 | 50.902 | 1:41.969 |
| 4 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 13 | 6.344 | 6.363 | 50.974 | 51.012 | 1:41.986 |
| 5 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 12 | 6.404 | 6.369 | 50.954 | 51.095 | 1:42.049 |
| 6 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 14 | 6.408 | 6.419 | 51.110 | 50.987 | 1:42.097 |
| 7 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 10 | 6.443 | 6.462 | 51.123 | 51.161 | 1:42.284 |
| 8 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 5 | 6.437 | 6.445 | 51.173 | 51.206 | 1:42.379 |
| 9 | Tucker West | USA | 4 | 6.472 | 6.476 | 51.129 | 51.313 | 1:42.442 |
| 10 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 7 | 6.422 | 6.423 | 51.118 | 51.387 | 1:42.505 |
| 11 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 19 | 6.398 | 6.409 | 51.305 | 51.364 | 1:42.669 |
| 12 | David Nößler | GER | 6 | 6.466 | 6.454 | 51.517 | 51.233 | 1:42.750 |
| 13 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 2 | 6.433 | 6.472 | 51.394 | 51.398 | 1:42.792 |
| 14 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 8 | 6.361 | 6.341 | 51.488 | 51.486 | 1:42.974 |
| 15 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 9 | 6.495 | 6.466 | 51.464 | 51.614 | 1:43.078 |
| 16 | Matvei Perestoronin | AIN | 3 | 6.414 | 6.451 | 51.406 | 51.752 | 1:43.158 |
| 17 | Pavel Repilov | AIN | 26 | 6.446 | 6.477 | 51.568 | 51.690 | 1:43.258 |
| 18 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 18 | 6.415 | 6.396 | 51.587 | 51.793 | 1:43.380 |
| 19 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 22 | 6.424 | 6.432 | 51.660 | 55.507 | 1:47.167 |
| 20 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 27 | 6.466 | 51.687 | |||
| 21 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 24 | 6.468 | 51.803 | |||
| 22 | Hunter Harris | USA | 23 | 6.493 | 51.806 | |||
| 23 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 25 | 6.514 | 51.868 | |||
| 24 | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 21 | 6.712 | 51.896 | |||
| 25 | Ondrej Hyman | CZE | 30 | 6.550 | 51.908 | |||
| 26 | Matthew Greiner | USA | 20 | 6.512 | 51.917 | |||
| 27 | Rasmus Moberg | SWE | 29 | 6.470 | 51.920 | |||
| 28 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 1 | 6.479 | 52.048 | |||
| 28 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 28 | 6.532 | 52.048 | |||
| DNF | Leon Felderer | ITA | 11 | 6.454 | 6.465 | 51.637 | DNF |