2019/2020 IBSF World Champs Skeleton Start Lists

From Altenberg, GER

Feb. 26, 2020 – Below you’ll find the start lists for the men’s and women’s skeleton portion of the IBSF World Championships from Altenberg, Germany. The first heat for men’s skeleton will start at 4:00 AM Eastern on Thursday, while the women will start their race at 3:30 AM Eastern on Friday.

The fields are large, with 32 men and 28 women set to compete. Like with any IBSF four heat race, the field will start in order of their start order from 1-32 for the men and 1-28 for the women. The second heat will take the top 20 and run them 20th to 1st, and then 21st on back will go. In the third heat the field will go in their current ranking, and then be paired down to the final field of 20 for the fourth and final heat.

Germany will start four men in the men’s skeleton race with their three spots plus the Junior World Championship winner.

Men’s Skeleton (32 total):
4 sleds: GER
3 sleds: CHN, GBR, KOR, RUS
2 sleds: AUT, CAN, ITA, LAT, SUI, USA
1 sled: ASA, ESP, ROU, UKR

Race Schedule All times Eastern
Thurs, Feb. 27: Heat 1 – 4:00 AM / Heat 2 – 6:00 AM
Fri, Feb. 28: Heat 3 – 7:00 AM / Heat 4 – 9:00 AM

The men’s skeleton race might be as wide open as you’ll see in the IBSF World Championships in Altenberg. While Latvian Martins Dukurs has won six of the last seven World Championships, he’s struggled in Altenberg over the last few World Cup events. Alexander Tretiakov is the most recent World Cup winner on the German track, while Olympic champion Sungbin Yun has a gold and a silver in his last two World Cup races there.

Despite it being one of the home tracks for the German team, only Christopher Grotheer has more than one World Cup medal for Germany since the 2015/2016 season. Grotheer has a gold (Jan. 2017) and bronze (Jan 2018), while Axel Jungk has one bronze in that time. Junior World Champion Felix Keisinger has had a strong season and has medals in four straight international competitions (Intercontinental and European Cup) in Altenberg.

The United States and Canada both send two sliders apiece, while Great Britain will send their full allocation of three.

Women’s skeleton (28 total):
3 sleds: GBR, GER, RUS, USA
2 sleds: CAN, CHN, ITA
1 sled: AUS, AUT, BEL, BRA, CZE, FRA, LAT, NED, SUI, SWE

Race Schedule All times Eastern
Fri, Feb. 28: Heat 1 – 3:30 AM / Heat 2 – 5:00 AM
Sat, Feb. 29: Heat 3 – 3:30 AM / Heat 4 – 5:00 AM

On the women’s side, 2019/2020 World Cup champion Jacqueline Lölling and her German teammates will look for multiple medals in Altenberg. Lölling has medalled in all four of her World Cup starts, winning two golds, a silver and a bronze in that time. Teammate Tina Hermann has five World Cup starts in Altenberg and has three silvers and a pair of fourth place finishes to her name, but it could be argued that she’s sliding better than ever coming into these World Championships.

World Cup title contenders Janine Flock and Mimi Rahneva have both struggled in Altenberg, with only one medal between them (Flock, Jan. 2017), while Elena Nikitina has traditionally slid well there and could be a contender for medals. Swiss slider Marina Gilardoni is sliding better than she has in years and could look to be a factor in the coming few days.

The United States and Great Britain both will send three women to World Championships, while Canada will have two in the field.

Start Lists