From Passeiertal, ITA
(January 4, 2026) – The racing was tight in Passeiertal, but when the smoke cleared, Italy had a firm grip on the podium with Hannes Unterholzner on top.
Fabian Brunner threw down a big run early in the race from the sixth starting spot and held a lead for 20 sleds until his time was finally matched by teammate Unterholzner. Behind them, Matthias Troger and Daniel Gruber helped take up the top four places on the leaderboard after the first heat, with Troger just .03 back in third and Gruber in fourth, .14 back.
The second heat saw Fabian Achenrainer slide to the lead and hold that spot as Switzerland’s Stefan Federer had a few mistakes late to fall behind the Austrian.
Then it was time for the Italian delegation to make their mark. Gruber was first, and threw down what would be the best slide of the competition to take the lead from Achenrainer. Troger was next, and had trouble during his slide to fall behind Gruber by .67 with just Unterholzner and Brunner yet to go.
Unterholzner’s second effort nearly mirrored his first, but just a hair quicker. His second slide was .19 quicker than his first and enough to take the lead from Gruber despite Gruber’s great run.
The final slider off the top was Brunner, who fell behind Unterholzner early with a start that was just .08 off his teammate’s time. But Brunner couldn’t match his first effort, and fell behind both Unterholzner and Gruber to finish third, a half second back.
The win was the first of his career for Unterholzner, while Gruber’s silver was his third straight medal to start the season. Brunner’s bronze was by far the best finish of his season.
“I stood on the podium for the first time in Winterleiten,” Unterholzner told the media after the race. “Now this is my first win! This year is simply going very well!”
Troger was fourth, Achenrainer fifth, and Federer sixth.
Torrey Cookman was the top American slider in 13th place, with Mason Palecek in 17th, just ahead of New Zealand’s Louie Coburn in 18th.
After three races in the World Cup calendar, Gruber holds a 15 point lead ahead of Unterholzner, with Achenrainer third. Matthias Troger and Alex Oberhofer round out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Hannes Unterholzner | ITA | 26 | 10.34 | 10.31 | 54.38 | 54.19 | 1:48.57 |
| 2 | Daniel Gruber | ITA | 29 | 10.34 | 10.37 | 54.52 | 54.08 | 1:48.60 |
| 3 | Fabian Brunner | ITA | 6 | 10.42 | 10.39 | 54.38 | 54.70 | 1:49.08 |
| 4 | Mathias Troger | ITA | 25 | 10.51 | 10.58 | 54.41 | 54.86 | 1:49.27 |
| 5 | Fabian Achenrainer | AUT | 28 | 10.27 | 10.31 | 54.69 | 54.74 | 1:49.43 |
| 6 | Stefan Federer | SUI | 1 | 10.48 | 10.50 | 54.54 | 54.96 | 1:49.50 |
| 7 | Sebastian Feldhammer | AUT | 24 | 10.56 | 10.58 | 55.57 | 55.40 | 1:50.97 |
| 8 | Ziga Kralj | SLO | 23 | 10.56 | 10.52 | 55.56 | 55.86 | 1:51.42 |
| 9 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 21 | 10.57 | 10.54 | 55.54 | 55.90 | 1:51.44 |
| 10 | Leon Auer | AUT | 22 | 10.51 | 10.52 | 55.29 | 56.27 | 1:51.56 |
| 11 | Paolo Auer | AUT | 16 | 10.70 | 10.78 | 55.46 | 56.47 | 1:51.93 |
| 12 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 15 | 10.93 | 10.79 | 56.98 | 57.13 | 1:54.11 |
| 13 | Torrey Cookman | USA | 17 | 10.75 | 10.77 | 56.89 | 57.58 | 1:54.47 |
| 14 | Thomas Matthews | USA | 14 | 10.91 | 10.94 | 57.39 | 57.67 | 1:55.06 |
| 15 | Simon Dietz | GER | 19 | 10.79 | 10.63 | 59.04 | 58.48 | 1:57.52 |
| 16 | Marco Almer | SUI | 2 | 11.39 | 11.54 | 59.53 | 58.60 | 1:58.13 |
| 17 | Mason Palecek | USA | 10 | 11.04 | 11.09 | 59.57 | 58.96 | 1:58.53 |
| 18 | Louie Coburn | NZL | 8 | 11.21 | 11.15 | 59.33 | 59.48 | 1:58.81 |
| 19 | Gabriel Halcin | SVK | 18 | 11.36 | 10.87 | 58.80 | 60.91 | 1:59.71 |
| 20 | Hans-Georg Münch | GER | 4 | 10.89 | 10.95 | 62.19 | 61.97 | 2:04.16 |
| 21 | Shohei Tanaka | SUI | 3 | 13.22 | 12.84 | 71.73 | 67.92 | 2:19.65 |
| 22 | Matthias Lambacher | ITA | 7 | 10.51 | 55.20 | |||
| 23 | Alex Oberhofer | ITA | 27 | 10.41 | 55.66 | |||
| 24 | Florian Freigassner | AUT | 13 | 10.52 | 55.93 |