The German skeleton team secured six medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina, surpassing the luge team. Despite no gold medals, national coach Christian Baude is highly satisfied with the outcome. The secret to success was a new, lighter sled kept under wraps.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the German skeleton team surprised with six medals. They won silver and bronze in the men's and women's singles events, as well as in the debut mixed team event. This outperformed the luge team, which earned five medals including three golds.
National coach Christian Baude, who has led the team since April 2020, called the result a "mega-result – even without a gold". The individual silvers went to Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk of Dresdner SC, trailing British gold medalist Matt Weston by just 0.17 seconds. Jacqueline Pfeifer of HSG Hochsauerland and Christopher Grotheer from Oberhof took bronze, each 0.01 seconds behind silver. Grotheer remarked: "That's bittersweet and a bit annoying. Today everything would have been possible, but a medal is a medal."
The 43-year-old Thuringian Baude, a former luger who won the 2011 European Cup overall, had predicted close races. Competition in skeleton is extremely tight, he noted. Felix Keisinger finished sixth, Hannah Neise fourth.
The key to success was a new sled developed by the Berlin Institute for Research and Development of Sports Equipment (FES). It weighs only 38 kilograms instead of 45 and features improved aerodynamics. Created over the summer of 2024, it was withheld during the World Cup season to prevent copying. Final tests occurred after the World Cup finale in Altenberg at the end of January on the home track in the Osterzgebirge. "We wanted to avoid the risk of something leaking out," Baude explained. He praised the team and support staff as a "real unit" and said he was "megaproud". Under Baude, skeleton's position within the German federation has strengthened.
