IBSF Skeleton World Cup St. Moritz: Five athletes to watch
Janine Flock, fresh off her World Cup record in Winterberg, headlines the women's field for this weekend's competition in Switzerland with Britain's Matt Weston leading the men's edition.
Skeleton
The penultimate event of the 2024/25 IBSF Skeleton World Cup takes place on Friday (10 January) in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
With the race for the Crystal Globe in both the women's and men's fields incredibly tight, a primary group of five athletes are all in with a realistic chance of claiming the overall World Cup title when the final races take place in Lillehammer on 7 February. The mixed team concludes the following day.
As such, this weekend's competition in St. Moritz could be monumental in deciding the 2024/25 World Cup champions, and the following five racers will need to push their sleds to the limit in pursuit of precious points.
Janine Flock (Austria)
Janine Flock won her first race of the season in Winterberg this past Friday (3 January), setting a record for most World Cup podium finishes (40) in the process.
Claiming the maximum 225 points on offer, the 35-year-old has cut into Hannah Neise's lead and is now just 23 points behind the Beijing 2022 Olympic champion.
If Flock can reach the podium and finish ahead of Neise in St. Moritz, she'll move into first place overall and have a golden opportunity to claim her first Crystal globe since 2021 and the third of her glittering career.
Matt Weston (Great Britain)
Matt Weston moved into first place in the men's competition last Friday in Germany with an assured performance, claiming gold by 0.62 seconds ahead of Austria's Samuel Maier.
The win propelled Weston ahead of British team-mate Marcus Wyatt into first place with 1255 points, 58 ahead of his compatriot.
Weston, the reigning World Cup champion, has been in exceptional form again in 2024/25, reaching the podium in all six races to date. Expect the 27-year-old to extend the streak in St. Moritz, where he finished fourth last season.
Hannah Neise (Germany)
Hannah Neise has been the most consistent athlete in the women's competition this year, with just two finishes (fourth in Sigulda, Latvia, and sixth in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea) outside of the podium places.
With that said, Neise - a Crystal Globe winner in 2023 and the reigning Olympic champion - is yet to win a race, and must be nervously looking over her shoulder with the red-hot Flock hitting top form at the perfect time.
Neise will gain confidence in knowing that any result that betters Flock's in Switzerland will likely see her lead intact, but to assuage any doubts of falling into second all Neise need do is win out. Simple, right?
Marcus Wyatt (Great Britain)
A disastrous eighth-place (by his standards, at least) in Winterberg has seen Marcus Wyatt drop into second place, just a week after he became the men's overall points leader with victory in Sigulda.
The 2024 European champion is by no means out of contention for the Crystal Globe, but will need to reach the podium and finish two spots ahead of his fellow Briton to retake the lead.
Christopher Grotheer (Germany)
After winning the first four races of the season, Grotheer suffered a devastating injury in training that forced him to withdraw from the World Cup in Sigulda, dropping him to third in the men's competition.
Despite failing to score any points in Latvia, the reigning world and Olympic champion still sits third overall on 1100 points. The German placed third in Winterberg, and the jury is still out on whether he's back to 100 per cent, but it would be foolish to completely overlook a competitor of Grotheer's calibre.
He trails Weston by 155 points, so it's highly unlikely the 32-year-old will be able to catch him by season's end. But this is sport, and as we've seen so many times before, anything can happen on a given day.