From Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA
(February 7, 2026) – Germany’s Max Langenhan if your two-heat leader in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
The two-time reigning world champion kicked off the Olympic sliding program as the first slider off the top. What did he do with that honor? He just threw down a track record run as the first ever slider to go down the Pista Olimpica Eugenio Monti track in under 53 seconds.
Behind him, slider after slider did their best to match Langenhan’s time with Austria’s Jonas Müller coming the closest, .035 behind.
Müller was the only slider to get within a tenth of Langenhan after the first heat, with 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller in third as the only other slider within a quarter of a second of Langenhan.
The second heat saw no shifting one way or another in the battle for the medals, with Fischnaller repeating his 2022 performance in what would be a pair of third quickest runs to take the lead from Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods. From there, Müller threw down a second strong slide to take over as the leader with Langenhan still to go.
Early on in his second run it looked like Langenhan may give up the lead. He tapped the wall on his way down the start ramp and early on came back to Müller. But not did he pull away from the Austrian, but he put down an even quicker run than his first with a track record 52.902 to take a .162 lead over Müller, with Fischnaller nearly three tenths back in third.
After his first two heats, Langenhan revealed that he was sliding while injured.
“I have quite a lot of pain in my neck,” Langenhan told FIL media after the second heat. “I woke up this morning and thought I wouldn’t be able to compete. But our medical department worked on my neck for six hours and I was reasonably okay.”
As for the contact at the start in the second heat, he said “I was stupid enough to crash into the barrier, that shouldn’t happen.”
Müller was happy with his overnight position in his first Olympics despite what he said was a disappointing effort in training.
“I’m satisfied because I didn’t manage to put in two solid runs in training,” Müller said. “Even though Max made a mistake at the start, he was .013 faster at the finish. He’s very fast.”
Aparjods is fourth after two heats, over two tenths behind Fischnaller. Italy’s Leon Felderer, in the middle of a career-season, is fifth.
Two-time Olympic champion Felix Loch is eighth overnight, .919 off of Langenhan’s two-heat time and .621 out of the medals. He, Wolfgang Kindl, and others had trouble with hitting the wall right on the start ramp, and that plus a inconsistent run leaves the German with work to do on Sunday.
The United States’ Jonny Gustafson is 11th overnight in Cortina d’Ampezzo after a slightly sloppy second run kept him from moving up in the order. Teammate Matt Greiner, in his Olympic debut, fell from 15th to 17th in the second heat but is in solid position to stay in the top 20 and go to the fourth and final heat on Sunday.
Australia’s Alex Ferlazzo picked up one spot in the second heat and moved up from 20th t0 19th.
Men’s luge concludes on Sunday at 11:00 AM ET with the third heat, with the fourth heat set for 12:32 PM ET.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | FIL WC Rank |
Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Max Langenhan | GER | 1 | 3 | 3.521 | 3.532 | 52.924 | 52.902 | 1:45.826 |
| 2 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 5 | 2 | 3.503 | 3.502 | 52.959 | 53.029 | 1:45.988 |
| 3 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 12 | T-11 | 3.525 | 3.554 | 53.085 | 53.039 | 1:46.124 |
| 4 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 3 | 5 | 3.521 | 3.519 | 53.221 | 53.113 | 1:46.334 |
| 5 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 10 | 16 | 3.564 | 3.567 | 53.224 | 53.367 | 1:46.591 |
| 6 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 6 | 4 | 3.534 | 3.548 | 53.273 | 53.412 | 1:46.685 |
| 7 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 8 | 6 | 3.594 | 3.574 | 53.385 | 53.321 | 1:46.706 |
| 9 | Felix Loch | GER | 2 | 1 | 3.497 | 3.507 | 53.418 | 53.327 | 1:46.745 |
| 8 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 9 | 10 | 3.565 | 3.563 | 53.406 | 53.438 | 1:46.844 |
| 10 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 4 | 8 | 3.509 | 3.498 | 53.462 | 53.424 | 1:46.886 |
| 11 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 11 | T-11 | 3.553 | 3.561 | 53.500 | 53.801 | 1:47.301 |
| 13 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 17 | 15 | 3.557 | 3.564 | 53.748 | 53.712 | 1:47.460 |
| 12 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 13 | 18 | 3.571 | 3.571 | 53.702 | 53.780 | 1:47.482 |
| 16 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 7 | 13 | 3.527 | 3.577 | 53.815 | 53.725 | 1:47.540 |
| 14 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 18 | 20 | 3.564 | 3.580 | 53.752 | 53.875 | 1:47.627 |
| 17 | Pavel Repilov | AIN | 21 | 28 | 3.527 | 3.546 | 53.861 | 53.847 | 1:47.708 |
| 15 | Matthew Greiner | USA | 20 | 24 | 3.596 | 3.598 | 53.814 | 53.946 | 1:47.760 |
| 18 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 23 | 21 | 3.598 | 3.597 | 53.903 | 53.866 | 1:47.769 |
| 20 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 15 | 17 | 3.581 | 3.562 | 54.013 | 53.999 | 1:48.012 |
| 19 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 24 | 22 | 3.654 | 3.462 | 53.986 | 54.097 | 1:48.083 |
| 21 | Ondrej Hyman | CZE | 14 | 23 | 3.576 | 3.590 | 54.299 | 54.318 | 1:48.617 |
| 23 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 22 | 19 | 5.535 | 3.511 | 54.676 | 54.332 | 1:49.008 |
| 24 | Seiya Kobayashi | JPN | 19 | 27 | 3.568 | 5.566 | 54.679 | 54.647 | 1:49.326 |
| 22 | Zhenyu Bao | CHN | 25 | 45 | 3.639 | 3.655 | 54.648 | 54.896 | 1:49.544 |
| 25 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 16 | 25 | 3.566 | 3.579 | 54.784 | 54.809 | 1:49.593 |