Winter Olympics 2022 - German sliding dominance continues as Christopher Grotheer surges to skeleton gold

ByRichard Newman

Updated 11/02/2022 at 15:35 GMT

Christopher Grotheer followed up his back-to-back skeleton World Championship wins to claim his first Winter Olympic gold with a convincing victory in Beijing. The German has barely ever troubled the World Cup circuit but easily beat the rest of the field. British pair Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finished 15th and 16th respectively. Watch every moment of the Games on discovery+.

Christopher Grotheer proved he is a man for the big occasion after the double world champion convincingly won skeleton gold at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as British pair Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finished outside of the top 10.

Despite his successes on the big stage, the German was not widely fancied for the title, as he has barely troubled the World Cup circuit, winning just two events over the past five years.

But Grotheer, who is also a police officer, backed up his 2020 World Championship victory with another win last year, and he again showed he can raise his game when it really matters, beating fellow German Axel Jungk by 0.66 seconds over four runs, as Yan Wengang won bronze - securing a first ever Olympic skeleton medal for hosts China.

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Pressure was on Weston and Wyatt to maintain Team GB's remarkable record of winning a medal at every Games since skeleton was reintroduced in 2002, but they never troubled the standings.

Grotheer went into day two with a +0.70 advantage and he produced his second fastest run of his competition so far with his third attempt to increase his lead to +0.85, with Axel Jungk unable to throw down a serious challenge to his position.

The only change in the podium places saw Sochi 2014 champion Aleksandr Tretyakov displace China’s Yan Wengang in bronze medal position.

Weston and Wyatt could not significantly improve on their first two runs but did enough to reach the final, with Weston staying 14th and Wyatt moving up a position to 16th. The former would drop a place to 15th, one place above his team-mate.

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With the sliders going in reverse order, the competition really started to hot up near the back end and with three athletes to go, it was a China one-two, with Yan edging his team-mate Yin Zheng.

Tretiiakov needed a good clean run to get on to the podium, but a hit on corner nine derailed his challenge, cueing huge cheers from the Chinese contingent at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, with Yan now assured a medal - China's first ever in the sport.

The question now was which colour, but Jungk delivered a solid run to go above Yan. The gold was Grotheer's, barring a disaster. The 29-year-old had been flawless throughout the competition and he again delivered the fastest run of a round to secure victory.

The women's competition concludes on Saturday, with Jaclyn Narracott of Australia leading the standings.

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