Two track records: Dream start for Max Langenhan

Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026

Cortina (FIL/07 Feb 2026) Max Langenhan leads at the halfway point of the Olympic luge competitions in the men's singles at the Cortina Sliding Center. The 26-year-old German set track records in both of his first runs. He initially needed 52.924 seconds to complete the 1,440-meter ice track, then just 52.902 seconds. Total time: 1:45.826 minutes. Langenhan competed with a handicap. “I have quite a lot of pain in my neck,” he revealed, “I woke up this morning and thought I wouldn't be able to compete. But our medical department worked on my neck for six hours, so it was reasonably okay.” He was unable to pull away as usual, especially at the start. “In the second run, I was stupid enough to crash into the barrier,” he said angrily, “that shouldn't happen.”

Nevertheless, the six-time world champion goes into the second day with a 0.162-second lead over Jonas Müller (Austria). The 28-year-old achieved the second-fastest time in both runs. “Overall, I'm satisfied because I didn't manage to put in two solid runs in training,” said Müller. “Even though Max made a mistake at the start of the second run, he was 13 thousandths of a second faster at the finish. That means he's very fast.”

Dominik Fischnaller follows in third place, 0.298 seconds behind. The 30-year-old was able to take advantage of the home advantage that the Italian team gained through two weeks of training parallel to World Cup competitions.

Fourth place went to Latvia's Kristers Aparjods, 0.508 seconds behind, ahead of Leon Felderer (0.765 seconds behind). Behind the Italian came an Austrian duo with Nico Gleirscher (0.859) and Wolfgang Kindl (0.880).

For co-favorite Felix Loch, hopes of a possible fourth gold medal were dashed after the first few turns. The 36-year-old German veered off course immediately after the start of run one and missed the ideal line in the following turns. This caused him to lose momentum and a lot of time. In the second run, he managed to improve from ninth to eighth place with a decent run, but with a 0.919-second deficit to his teammate Langenhan, his chances of a medal are now a distant prospect.