Yan earns China's first sliding medal as Grotheer wins skeleton gold

YANQING, China: Yan Wengang won China's first-ever medal in a Winter Games sliding event on Friday (Feb 11) as Germany continued their domination of the Olympic high-speed disciplines with Christopher Grotheer winning the men's skeleton gold.

German racers had won all four luge events at the Beijing Games and Grotheer extended their winning streak in the men's skeleton with a best combined time of four minutes, 01.01seconds.

His German teammate Axel Jungk took silver at 0.66 seconds back with China's Yan making history with bronze at 0.76.

So far, German racers have won eight of the 15 medals - including all five golds - up for grabs in the five sliding events so far at these Winter Games.

German racers also swept the Olympic test events last October and November on the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.

So why are the Germans so good at sliding sports?

"It's the whole system they have," explained Rupert Staudlinger, who races for Britain, but was born in Berchtesgaden and raised in the German Alps.

"They have four tracks, a big institution which really develops sled (sports) and a tonne of staff.

"All that pays out in good results."

Germany could also dominate the men's bobsleigh events, which starts Monday.

Francesco Friedrich, who won gold as pilot of Germany's two and four-man bobsleigh at the 2018 Winter Games, is the name to beat having won 14 of his 16 World Cup races this season.

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