From Altenberg, GER
(January 18, 2026) – It was definitely the final race for Johannes Lochner. Though he won’t commit one way or another, there’s a good chance it was the final race for Francesco Friedrich, and those two sat one-two after the first heat in Altenberg, separated by just .05.
But it was the third German sled, piloted by Adam Ammour, who took the top spot, shocking the field with a great second run.
Lochner led after the first heat, .19 ahead of Ammour. Behind the three German sleds, Brad Hall, Jinsu Kim, Taylor Austin, and Markus Treichl were all battling for position trying to break onto the podium.
The second heat saw a great run by Markus Treichl, whose team gave him the third quickest push of the race as Treichl drove to the lead ahead of Switzerland’s Cedric Follador.
Austin and Kim came into the heat tied, just ahead of Treichl. But trouble for both pilots late in their runs placed both behind Treichl, with Austin .03 ahead of Kim.
Hall was next. The British pilot has been successful in the past in Altenberg, and he threw down an outstanding second drive to move well into the lead with the three German sleds still to go.
It was then Ammour’s turn. Coming off a four-man gold medal in St. Moritrz, Amour’s team gave him the quickest start to that point of the heat, and he rewarded them with the quick run of the competition to guarantee a medal with just Friedrich and Lochner still to go.
Friedrich’s team was the quickest off the top in both heats. Their second start was just .08 off the start record and Friedrich was ahead early. But Friedrich came back to his teammate at every split, and crossed the finish line .15 behind Ammour despite a relatively clean run and one that normally would have left Friedrich in the lead.
Finally it was Lochner’s turn. He’d already announced that this would be his last race on the World Cup, and after the Olympics his career will be over. Looking for gold in his final race, Lochner’s team pushed off a hundredth ahead of their first start. Lochner then began to pull away, and was ahead out of the Kreisel. But one mistake out of Curve 14 sent Lochner into a skid, and that’s all it took to fall behind Ammour, with Lochner .o3 back in silver.
Ammour’s win was his second straight and second of his four-man career.
For Lochner, silver was the 48th medal of his four-man World Cup career and 105th across all disciplines and championships.
Friedrich will end his season, and possibly his World Cup career with 184 medals between all World Cup, World Championship and Olympic disciplines, with the chance of two more to come in Corinta.
Hal took fourth place, with Triechl fifth. Austin finished sixth for his best career four-man finish outside of North American and third best ever in the discipline.
Kris Horn and his team took it easy off the start as Horn was looking for just two clean runs to finish. He finished 17th, ahead of Patrick Baumgartner who crashed in the first heat.
Johannes Lochner finishes the season with three golds and four silvers to win his second career World Cup Crystal Globe. He’ll also walk away as the combined bobsled champion as well. Francesco Friedrich finishes second for the third time in his career to go with seven four-man World Cup titles. Ammour finishes the season in third for the second straight season.
Brad Hall, Markus Treichl and Patrick Baumgartner round out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Ammour / Ammour / Tasche / Schaller | GER | 4 | 5.13 | 5.11 | 54.78 | 54.35 | 1:49.13 |
| 2 | Lochner / Margis / Wenzel / Fleischhauer | GER | 11 | 5.17 | 5.16 | 54.59 | 54.56 | 1:49.15 |
| 3 | Friedrich / Sommer / Schüller / Straub | GER | 5 | 5.10 | 5.09 | 54.64 | 54.64 | 1:49.28 |
| 4 | Hall / Simons / Lawrence / Cackett | GBR | 6 | 5.19 | 5.18 | 54.93 | 54.71 | 1:49.64 |
| 5 | Treichl / Stepan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 9 | 5.21 | 5.13 | 54.97 | 54.79 | 1:49.76 |
| 6 | Austin / Evelyn O’Higgins / Bruggeling / Murray-Lawrence | CAN | 7 | 5.21 | 5.19 | 54.96 | 54.83 | 1:49.79 |
| 7 | Kim / Chae / Kim / Lee | KOR | 13 | 5.16 | 5.15 | 54.96 | 54.91 | 1:49.87 |
| 8 | Follador / Vögele / Matossi / Annen | SUI | 10 | 5.30 | 5.28 | 55.15 | 54.87 | 1:50.02 |
| 9 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Riou / Blairon | FRA | 14 | 5.25 | 5.25 | 55.18 | 55.02 | 1:50.20 |
| 10 | Behounek / Rapp / Wijas / Dobes | CZE | 16 | 5.26 | 5.25 | 55.33 | 55.23 | 1:50.56 |
| 11 | Tentea / Nica / Pacioianu / Iordache | ROU | 15 | 5.32 | 5.34 | 55.41 | 55.35 | 1:50.76 |
| 12 | Kranz / Lenherr / Kesseler / Tschofen | LIE | 17 | 5.42 | 5.41 | 55.48 | 55.69 | 1:51.17 |
| 13 | Rohner / Bieri / Moser / Hersperger | SUI | 1 | 5.38 | 5.37 | 55.70 | 55.50 | 1:51.20 |
| 14 | Mandlbauer / Nichols-Bardi / Mitterer / Bertschler | AUT | 3 | 5.24 | 5.30 | 55.57 | 56.09 | 1:51.66 |
| 15 | Kalenda / Ungurs / Nemme / Klava | LAT | 2 | 5.28 | 5.26 | 56.10 | 55.74 | 1:51.84 |
| 16 | Rohn / Toure / Hohl / Matthys | SUI | 18 | 5.52 | 5.57 | 55.76 | 57.51 | 1:53.27 |
| 17 | Horn / Abdul-saboor / Rager / Furnell | USA | 12 | 6.04 | 5.96 | 58.18 | 57.57 | 1:55.75 |
| DSQ | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Mircea / Bilotti | ITA | 8 | 5.26 | 59.30 | DSQ |