British skeleton world champion Matt Weston emerged victorious in the inaugural official test race held on the contentious sliding track currently under reconstruction for the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics. Weston secured the win by besting Austrian European champion Samuel Maier by a mere 0.15 seconds after navigating the Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in two runs in the head-first discipline. This event also marked the commencement of the skeleton World Cup for the Olympic season.
Yin Zheng of China claimed the third position, finishing 0.18 seconds behind the leader and setting a track record of 56.79 seconds in his initial run. Lukas Nydegger, the junior world champion from Germany, achieved his highest World Cup result to date, coming in fourth and narrowly missing the podium by 0.05 seconds.
The top American performer was Austin Florian, who secured the 10th spot, while local athlete Mattia Gaspari represented Italy and finished in 17th place. In the women’s category, Jaqcueline Pfeifer marked her first World Cup victory in nearly five years, finishing 0.23 seconds ahead of her German counterpart and Olympic champion Hannah Neise. Kim Meylemans of Belgium wrapped up the event in third place, trailing by 0.32 seconds.
The day’s schedule included a mixed team competition, with bobsled races scheduled for the following days. Although the competitive section of the Cortina track is operational, the surrounding infrastructure is still under development, and no spectators were permitted at the trial event.
The International Olympic Committee initially proposed relocating the sliding events for the Games to neighboring Austria or Switzerland due to the closure of the Cortina track in 2008 because of escalating maintenance expenses. Despite this suggestion, the Italian government proceeded with the renovation, investing 118 million euros ($136 million) in the reconstruction of the venue. The Olympics are set to take place from February 6 to 22.