Susanne Kreher travels to the World Championships in St. Moritz without a World Cup victory - and suddenly wins the title. A dramaturgy that is gradually becoming a habit in German skeleton. The German tobogganists shine again, Felix Loch towered - with tears in his eyes.
Susanne Kreher grinned and grinned, she couldn't stop. "It's also a sensation for me, I would never have dreamed of it," said the 24-year-old after her World Cup coup in St. Moritz. In her young career, Kreher has never won a World Cup, now she is suddenly world champion - once again the German skeleton celebrates a heroine from the second row. The Cinderella story is becoming normal.
Because Kreher follows in the footsteps of Hannah Neise and Christopher Grotheer. A year ago, Neise traveled to Beijing without a single World Cup win and sensationally won Olympic gold there, Grotheer only started winning at the age of 27 - and then won two world titles and also gold on the largest sports stage.
In St. Moritz, however, Kreher's role models crashed badly. Defending champion Grotheer was only tenth after four runs and was still the best German man. 4.14 seconds separated him from the new world champion Matt Weston from Great Britain. "I'm absolutely disappointed, it was really, really bad," said Grotheer. Halfway through the competition on Thursday, he was hard on himself, saying he drove "like a worst amateur". However, his teammates fared even worse. Olympic silver medalist Axel Jungk had no chance at all and ended up in 18th place, almost six seconds behind. Felix Keisinger and Cedric Renner finished 12th and 16th.
And Olympic champion Neise, a year ago, like Kreher, the celebrated heroine, was the weakest German woman in St. Moritz. 15th place after four runs, more than four seconds behind Kreher - the performance matched the mixed post-Olympic winter of the 22-year-old. Defending champion Tina Hermann was the second best German, but missed the podium in fifth place. A good second separated the world champion from 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021 from the top. Jacqueline Lölling was seventh. Meanwhile, Kreher earned her first major victory with remarkable consistency. In each of the four runs, she finished in the top three, which no other competitor managed. And although the favorites were weakening, the series of German skeleton women continued: the world champion has always worn black, red and gold since 2016.
Meanwhile, tobogganist Felix Loch also showed the winning fist with tears in his eyes and his son on his arm. The sea of flags at home in Oberhof and his 14th world title visibly moved the record world champion. With a furious drive, the 33-year-old secured gold in the sprint competition at the start of the title fights in the Thuringian Forest - and sent a clear exclamation mark to the astonished competitors for the individual competition on Sunday.
"It's something very special. It's only the sprint, but you can see a trend. And that's why I'm really looking forward to the weekend," said Loch after the competition. In front of the eyes of IOC President Thomas Bach, the man from Berchtesgaden, who won his first World Championship title 15 years ago in Oberhof, showed himself to be in top form right on time for the high point of the season - and thus emulated many of his teammates.
Before that, Dajana Eitberger stole the show, the 32-year-old won her first world title at her home game. World champion Julia Taubitz and European champion Anna Berreiter secured silver and bronze, junior Merle Fräbel rounded off the furious opening result with a strong fourth place. "I grew up here, it's my home. It's a small advantage, but I fought hard for it," said Eitberger.
And in the doubles competitions, too, the fans could already be happy about precious metals. The "Thüringen-Express" Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken were in top form at the home game and won gold ahead of the Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt. "We like the train, we are at home here. It's just a pleasure," said Eggert, who was born in the neighboring town of Suhl. Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal secured their first World Championship gold in the sprint for women.
