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Germany and China with first Olympic medals in men's skeleton
Yanqing (RWH) Germany and China have joined the list of medallists in men's skeleton for the first time at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
With Christopher Grotheer, the Olympic Champion comes from Germany for the first time in the discipline's Olympic history. Neither in the individual Olympic appearances of the skeleton athletes in 1928 and 1948 in St. Moritz (SUI) nor in the previous five Winter Games since 2002 has there been a medal at all for Germany in men's skeleton.
At the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, Grotheer, the World Champion from 2020 and 2021, now sled straight to Olympic gold. Medal number two for the German team was secured by team mate Axel Jungk (GER, 0.66 seconds back) with silver.
Yan Wengang from China (0.76 seconds back) celebrated Olympic bronze with the best time in the last race run and under the cheers of officials and volunteers at the track. It was the first Olympic medal in one of the rink sports for the Olympic hosts. Team-mate Yin Zheng, who had set a start record in the first race, finished fifth behind 2014 Olympic Champion Alexander Tretiakov (ROC).
Record World Champion and overall World Cup winner Martins Dukurs from Latvia finished his fifth Olympic Winter Games in seventh place.
Christopher Grotheer (GER, 2022 Olympic champion, 2020 and 2021 World champion):
"Unbelievable. I have dreamt of this since I was a child, now the dream has come true. I was very nervous before the first run and I couldn't sleep well last night either. Now I'm just proud of myself and everyone around me who made this possible."
Axel Jungk (GER, Olympic silver medallist 2022, overall World Cup runner-up 2018, 2022)
"In the end, I luckily still managed to finish second. The whole thing is also great teamwork and a thank you to everyone who contributed. I'm just happy now to call this medal my own!"
Yan Wengang (CHN, Olympic bronze medallist 2022, World Championship sixth place skeleton mixed 2020)
"Winning a medal for my country is simply the greatest thing. I am very happy that I was able to catch up in the fourth run. I hope that I can also inspire many people for the sport of skeleton and that new athletes will start with the sport."
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Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
