From Cortina d’Ampezzo
(February 8, 2026) – Max Langenhan put in a dominating performance and led wire to wire on his way to his first Olympic gold medal after a season that saw him podium often but not win a race.
On Saturday, Langenhan was the first off in the first heat and broke the track record on his way to a lead over Jonas Müller. In the second heat, he broke the track record to extend his lead to over two tenths of a second.
Sunday brought more of the same results for the two-time reigning world champion.
The German was first off the top in the third head and once again put down a track record run on his way to a .294 second advantage over Müller, who did his part trying to keep it close with a start record and an otherwise clean slide.
But in the fourth heat it was more of the same. Langenhan was the final slider off, and with the pressure of a gold medal run on, he answered the call with yet another track record effort, lowering his record to 52.660 on his way to a yawning .596 second victory over Müller.
With his big lead after three heats, Langenhan was able to finally relax a bit and enjoy the moment.
He had raced all four heats with an injured neck, an injury that had taken hours of physio work from the German trainers leading into each day. Despite that, the weight of the medal seemed to be okay.
“This thing is crazy heavy,” he said. “I would like to break the medal into a thousand pieces and give some to everyone who accompanied me on the way to this victory. So many of these people, my first coaches and my first sponsors, were here today, which makes this day very special.”
Müller in his first Olympic Games, had four outstanding runs of his own that were just overshadowed by the brilliance and dominance of Langenhan. The Austrian 2023 world champ did look to be making ground on Langenhan in his third run, but was out-slid below Lino K2 by the eventual Olympic champion.
Despite the pressure of his first Olympics, Müller didn’t feel the pressure of the moment.
“I was quite relaxed, ” he said. “Not nervous at all.”
But the silver medal was still an outstanding finish for Müller in his first Olympics, as he beat out the remainder of the field by a substantial margin.
Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller backed up his bronze medal in the 2022 Olympic Games with one on his home track in Cortina. Much like Müller, he went mostly unchallenged by the sliders behind him, setting the third quick time in all four of his heats as the only slider other than Müller to finish within a full second of Langenhan.
Behind Fischnaller, Kristers Aparjods saw a shot for a medal go by the wayside in his third run. The Latvian made a mistake at the start of his third run and had only the seventh quickest time of the heat, and while it was enough to hang onto fourth going into the final heat it left too much time to make up and get into the medals as he finished fourth.
Austria’s Nico Gleirscher was never really in medal contention, but lingered around the top five throughout the race and ended up in fifth. His best run was his third, where he was able to make up a little bit of ground on Aparjods before eventually settling into fifth.
Behind him was an Olympic gold medal favorite who just never had the race that he was looking for.
Felix Loch entered the Games as the World Cup leader and sliding even better than he had in the previous few years. Looking for his third Olympic gold medal, he had the start record in the first heat but had trouble in a few spots during that first run. In turn he ended the heat in ninth. Over the next three runs he clawed his way back up to eventually finish sixth, but off the podium for the third straight time.
The United States’ Jonny Gustafson put down four runs that were all quick, but just not quick enough to get the American into the top ten, as he finished 11th. Matt Greiner made his Olympic debut on the second American sled and finished 20th.
For Gustafson, his second Olympics was better than the first.
“It’s just incredible and definitely different from the last Olympics. I would say I feel even better after this one,” said Gustafson. “It’s always fun racing. Everybody I race against are great competitors, and it’s such a unique experience.”
As for Greiner, despite a finish he would have liked to improve on, it was a fun experience for his first Games.
“I’m speechless. This was the most incredible week of my life and I’m so proud to be here,” said Greiner. “Sliding wise, it was a little hairy. I think you can expect that from your first Olympics and there’s room for improvement on all four runs.”
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Max Langenhan | GER | 1 | 52.924 | 52.902 | 52.705 | 52.660 | 3:31.191 |
| 2 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 5 | 52.959 | 53.029 | 52.837 | 52.962 | 3:31.787 |
| 3 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 12 | 53.085 | 53.039 | 52.949 | 53.052 | 3:32.125 |
| 4 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 3 | 53.221 | 53.113 | 53.208 | 53.070 | 3:32.612 |
| 5 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 6 | 53.273 | 53.412 | 53.053 | 53.235 | 3:32.973 |
| 6 | Felix Loch | GER | 2 | 53.418 | 53.327 | 53.160 | 53.146 | 3:33.051 |
| 7 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 10 | 53.224 | 53.367 | 53.221 | 53.305 | 3:33.117 |
| 8 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 8 | 53.385 | 53.321 | 53.171 | 53.388 | 3:33.265 |
| 9 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 9 | 53.406 | 53.438 | 53.501 | 53.147 | 3:33.492 |
| 10 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 4 | 53.462 | 53.424 | 53.415 | 53.742 | 3:34.043 |
| 11 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 11 | 53.500 | 53.801 | 53.553 | 53.578 | 3:34.432 |
| 12 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 7 | 53.815 | 53.725 | 53.633 | 53.601 | 3:34.774 |
| 13 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 18 | 53.752 | 53.875 | 53.584 | 53.676 | 3:34.887 |
| 14 | Pavel Repilov | AIN | 21 | 53.861 | 53.847 | 53.692 | 53.563 | 3:34.963 |
| 15 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 13 | 53.702 | 53.780 | 53.526 | 53.978 | 3:34.986 |
| 16 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 17 | 53.748 | 53.712 | 54.188 | 53.556 | 3:35.204 |
| 17 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 23 | 53.903 | 53.866 | 53.690 | 53.748 | 3:35.207 |
| 18 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 15 | 54.013 | 53.999 | 53.800 | 53.734 | 3:35.546 |
| 19 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 24 | 53.986 | 54.097 | 53.824 | 53.693 | 3:35.600 |
| 20 | Matthew Greiner | USA | 20 | 53.814 | 53.946 | 53.936 | 54.176 | 3:35.872 |
| 21 | Mateusz Sochowicz | POL | 22 | 54.676 | 54.332 | 54.015 | 2:43.023 | |
| 22 | Ondrej Hyman | CZE | 14 | 54.299 | 54.318 | 54.821 | 2:43.438 | |
| 23 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 16 | 54.784 | 54.809 | 54.177 | 2:43.770 | |
| 24 | Zhenyu Bao | CHN | 25 | 54.648 | 54.896 | 54.683 | 2:44.227 | |
| 25 | Seiya Kobayashi | JPN | 19 | 54.679 | 54.647 | 55.106 | 2:44.432 |