From Winterleiten, AUT
(December 20, 2025) – Daniel Gruber came from behind to win the opening race of the 2025/2026 Alpine Luge season as Italy swept the podium to start the season.
Hannes Unterholzner had the quick start of the race in the first heat and slid to a .43 second lead over teammate Mathias Troger, a lead that would hold throgh the remainder of the heat, with only Gruber getting somewhat close to the Italian.
In the second heat, Troger took the lead from the fifth starting spot and held it past teammate Alex Oberhofer and Austria’s Sebastian Feldhammer, guaranteeing himself a medal and Italy a gold.
Gruber was next and while his second run was a tick slower than his first, it was more than enough to take the lead from Troger with only Unterholzner to go.
Like in the first heat, Unterholzner had the quick start of the heat, but through the first few curves fell behind his teammate. His second slide was only fourth quickest, and a few small mistakes late cost him the lead and the victory as he finished .04 behind Gruber in the closest race of the day.
Italy’s sweep gave the nation its first gold of the season.
Achenrainer was fourth, Oberhofer fifth, and Feldhammer rounded out the top six.
Ziga Kralj was the top non-Austrian or Italian in seventh.
Torrey Cookman had a pair of solid runs to finish 14th, two spots ahead of teammate Thomas Matthews in 16th, with Mason Palecek rounding out the American effort in 21st.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Daniel Gruber | ITA | 30 | 2.76 | 2.76 | 60.87 | 60.97 | 2:01.84 |
| 2 | Hannes Unterholzner | ITA | 19 | 2.68 | 2.72 | 60.65 | 61.23 | 2:01.88 |
| 3 | Mathias Troger | ITA | 14 | 2.79 | 2.83 | 61.08 | 61.10 | 2:02.18 |
| 4 | Fabian Achenrainer | AUT | 35 | 2.75 | 2.81 | 61.20 | 61.02 | 2:02.22 |
| 5 | Alex Oberhofer | ITA | 36 | 2.79 | 2.80 | 60.96 | 61.27 | 2:02.23 |
| 6 | Sebastian Feldhammer | AUT | 32 | 2.82 | 2.82 | 61.02 | 62.11 | 2:03.13 |
| 7 | Ziga Kralj | SLO | 34 | 2.85 | 2.89 | 61.71 | 61.96 | 2:03.67 |
| 8 | Leon Auer | AUT | 24 | 2.73 | 2.78 | 61.67 | 62.38 | 2:04.05 |
| 9 | Paolo Auer | AUT | 2 | 2.85 | 2.88 | 62.17 | 62.33 | 2:04.50 |
| 10 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 33 | 2.88 | 2.86 | 62.50 | 62.01 | 2:04.51 |
| 11 | Samuel Halcin | SVK | 31 | 2.89 | 2.99 | 62.65 | 62.38 | 2:05.03 |
| 12 | Vincent Streit | GER | 27 | 2.92 | 2.92 | 62.66 | 62.94 | 2:05.60 |
| 13 | Simon Dietz | GER | 1 | 2.80 | 2.88 | 62.80 | 62.96 | 2:05.76 |
| 14 | Torrey Cookman | USA | 18 | 3.00 | 3.03 | 64.11 | 64.00 | 2:08.11 |
| 15 | Gabriel Halcin | SVK | 29 | 3.02 | 3.05 | 64.92 | 63.42 | 2:08.34 |
| 16 | Thomas Matthews | USA | 20 | 3.06 | 3.03 | 63.71 | 65.36 | 2:09.07 |
| 17 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 28 | 3.06 | 3.09 | 64.61 | 64.78 | 2:09.39 |
| 18 | Tomas Hasek | CZE | 16 | 3.21 | 3.22 | 65.48 | 65.58 | 2:11.06 |
| 19 | Dominik Neupauer | SVK | 25 | 2.98 | 2.99 | 66.09 | 65.73 | 2:11.82 |
| 20 | Wojciech Kwiecinski | POL | 12 | 2.89 | 2.93 | 66.07 | 65.79 | 2:11.86 |
| 21 | Mason Palecek | USA | 21 | 3.09 | 3.12 | 66.00 | 66.27 | 2:12.27 |
| 22 | Jakub Mercak | CZE | 15 | 3.27 | 3.23 | 66.94 | 65.85 | 2:12.79 |
| 23 | David Rydl | CZE | 22 | 3.37 | 3.30 | 65.87 | 67.08 | 2:12.95 |
| 24 | Patryk Hudy | POL | 11 | 3.00 | 3.05 | 66.13 | 66.89 | 2:13.02 |
| 25 | Louie Coburn | NZL | 6 | 3.23 | 3.36 | 67.70 | 66.62 | 2:14.32 |
| 26 | Jan Janosek | CZE | 9 | 3.05 | 3.14 | 69.87 | 70.82 | 2:20.69 |
| 27 | Matthias Lambacher | ITA | 10 | 2.83 | 61.28 | |||
| 28 | Fabian Brunner | ITA | 37 | 2.81 | 61.39 | |||
| 29 | Florian Freigassner | AUT | 26 | 2.90 | 62.44 | |||
| 30 | Simon Saurer | AUT | 3 | 3.04 | 62.67 | |||
| 31 | Konrad Plonka | POL | 13 | 3.06 | 70.04 | |||
| 32 | Shohei Tanaka | SUI | 23 | 3.38 | 71.18 | |||
| 33 | Daniel Szmit | POL | 4 | 3.63 | 77.98 | |||
| 34 | Gabriel Dvorcak | SVK | 5 | 3.54 | 78.56 | |||
| 35 | Hans-georg Münch | GER | 7 | 3.07 | 101.76 |