From Winterberg, GER
(January 3, 2026) – Johannes Lochner’s outstanding 2025/2026 season continued into the new year and he and Georg Fleischhauer slid to another gold medal, this time in Winterberg.
Lochner was the fifth pilot off in the first heat and opened up a sizable .36 lead over teammate Adam Ammour on his first run. Three sleds later, Francesco Friedrich took to the ice and got within .2 of Lochner, and the Germans sat one-two-three (with USA’s Frank Del Duca tied with Ammour).
In the second heat, USA’s Kris Horn and Carsten Vissering put down another big push, the quickest to that point, and a great slide to take the lead from South Korea’s Jinsu Kim, and then held that spot as Del Duca and Josh Williamson fell behind by .05 with their slide.
After a track hold, Ammour and brakeman Alexander Schaller pushed off with a 5.10 start, matching Horn and Vissering’s race-quickest effort, and Ammour put down the quick run of the race to take the lead from the Americans and secure victory for Germany.
Friedrich was next. He and Alexander Schüller had another quick start, but the speed just wasn’t there for Friedrich. Despite an otherwise clean drive, Friedrich fell behind Ammour with just Lochner to go.
Lochner would not be denied. He and Fleischhauer matched their first heat start, and by the Kreisel, Lochner was pulling away from Ammour, eventually finishing .3 ahead of Ammour, with Friedrich a half of a second back in third.
Lochner’s gold was the 24th of his two-man career, while Ammour’s silver was the fourth of his career and his best finish of the 2025/2026 season.
Friedrich’s bronze was the 89th medal of his two-man career.
Horn took fourth for a career-best as a pilot, with Del Duca fifth and the team of Jinsu Kim and Hyeonggeun Kim sixth.
Brad Hall and Alex Cartagena couldn’t find pace at the top in Winterberg and finished 14th for Great Britain, while Taylor Austin and Mike Evelyn O’Higgins slid to 19th for Canada. Pat Norton and Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson missed the second run and finished 25th.
With two races to go in the World Cup season, Lochner holds a commanding lead over Friedrich, with Ammour third. Del Duca, Kim, and Michael Vogt round out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 5 | 5.19 | 5.19 | 54.88 | 54.93 | 1:49.81 |
| 2 | Ammour / Schaller | GER | 4 | 5.25 | 5.21 | 55.24 | 54.87 | 1:50.11 |
| 3 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 8 | 5.18 | 5.19 | 55.08 | 55.24 | 1:50.32 |
| 4 | Horn / Vissering | USA | 22 | 5.10 | 5.12 | 55.28 | 55.40 | 1:50.68 |
| 5 | Del Duca / Williamson | USA | 11 | 5.24 | 5.23 | 55.24 | 55.49 | 1:50.73 |
| 6 | Kim / Kim | KOR | 6 | 5.23 | 5.16 | 55.45 | 55.45 | 1:50.90 |
| 7 | Sun / An | CHN | 14 | 5.21 | 5.19 | 55.59 | 55.69 | 1:51.28 |
| 8 | Vogt / Ndiaye | SUI | 7 | 5.25 | 5.24 | 55.81 | 55.49 | 1:51.30 |
| 9 | Tentea / Nica | ROU | 16 | 5.32 | 5.33 | 55.63 | 55.77 | 1:51.40 |
| 10 | Treichl / Bertschler | AUT | 10 | 5.34 | 5.21 | 55.87 | 55.57 | 1:51.44 |
| 11 | Grantins / Ungurs | LAT | 23 | 5.28 | 5.26 | 55.76 | 55.70 | 1:51.46 |
| 12 | Heinrich / Hauterville | FRA | 18 | 5.28 | 5.26 | 55.68 | 55.81 | 1:51.49 |
| 13 | Follador / Güntert | SUI | 15 | 5.34 | 5.30 | 55.75 | 55.79 | 1:51.54 |
| 14 | Hall / Cartagena | GBR | 9 | 5.39 | 5.40 | 55.76 | 55.85 | 1:51.61 |
| 15 | Kranz / Kesseler | LIE | 26 | 5.41 | 5.34 | 55.86 | 55.80 | 1:51.66 |
| 16 | Rohner / Rolli | SUI | 21 | 5.30 | 5.29 | 55.77 | 55.89 | 1:51.66 |
| 16 | Mandlbauer / Nichols-Bardi | AUT | 19 | 5.29 | 5.29 | 55.88 | 55.85 | 1:51.73 |
| 18 | Kalenda / Kaufmanis | LAT | 13 | 5.35 | 5.27 | 55.90 | 55.87 | 1:51.77 |
| 19 | Austin / Evelyn O’Higgins | CAN | 24 | 5.34 | 5.35 | 55.91 | 56.05 | 1:51.96 |
| 20 | Li / Chi | CHN | 17 | 5.27 | 5.26 | 55.86 | 56.12 | 1:51.98 |
| 21 | Wesselink / Franjic | NED | 20 | 5.28 | 56.01 | |||
| 22 | Variola / Lambrughi | ITA | 2 | 5.33 | 56.03 | |||
| 23 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 12 | 5.38 | 56.03 | |||
| 24 | Prochazka / Petrikovic | CZE | 27 | 5.28 | 56.18 | |||
| 25 | Norton / Eskrick-Parkinson | CAN | 25 | 5.37 | 56.24 | |||
| 26 | Behounek / Rapp | CZE | 1 | 5.48 | 56.30 | |||
| 27 | Zakrzewski / Sarnecki | POL | 3 | 5.48 | 56.39 |