S+D METALS Sponsoring: Skeleton UPDATE

S+D METALS has been backing motivated sports talents for years and supports them to succeed, according to the company philosophy "supporting your success".

Once again S+D METALS supports Matthias Guggenberger, trainer of the most successful skeleton athlete of all times Martins Dukurs and the talented world number two Janine Flocke by donating our high performance material.

Skeleton - special steels as a decisive detail for success

The spectacular sport of skeleton combines highest speeds of up to 145 km/h and sleds on which the athletes race head first down the bobsleigh run. Skeleton was declared an Olympic sport in 1926 and creates amazement worldwide.

The successful skeleton driver and trainer Matthias Guggenberger kindly answered some exciting questions about special steels as a crucial detail for success in the skeleton sport.

How is our material used?

In skeleton sports, the technique in the sled is continuously being developed further, so we are constantly looking for new and even better materials. In this context, S+D METALS is of enormous help to us, as we can obtain special steels that have an advantage over other materials. In particular, it is a weight plate that we use due to the new regulation. We have already tested these in the past.

Will our material be used in a competition?

We used this material for the first time in the 2018/19 season at the World Championship in Whistler CAN and the European Championship in Innsbruck AUT. Immediately we won the European and World Championships. Therefore, we knew that this material should also be used in the new sled for the Olympic Games to remain competitive. Especially the big nations like Germany, England, China and Russia have an advantage in this area due to their budgets, but we also try to fight for medals as a smaller nation (Latvia/Austria) with the support of partners like S+D METALS.

Which team uses the material?

I am the national coach in Latvia as well as the coach of the Austrian athlete and my partner Janine Flock. At the moment Janine Flock from Austria (overall World Cup winner, triple World Championship medalist and seven times European Championship medalist) and the most successful skeleton athlete of all times Martins Dukurs from Latvia (double Olympic medalist, ten times overall World Cup winner, six times World Champion and ten times European Champion) use the high-performance material. As you can see, the high-performance materials from S+D METALS are very important for our success. We are very grateful for the support of the entire S+D METALS team.

Two uses of our material: two World Cup titles

Mr Guggenberger thanked us again and told us that the material was working perfectly. Last Saturday both athletes could already look forward to World Cup titles using the material of S+D METALS in Sigulda (LVA).

Janine Flock became the first female Skeleton World Cup winner in the winter of 2020/2021 and was also able to set an outstanding new track record of 51.49 seconds.

Martins Dukurs also won the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021 using S+D METALS material and can now look back on a total of 55 World Cup titles. On his home track he set two best run times.

S+D METALS is very happy about the first extremely successful performances of our material. We wish you further fun, success and health for the coming season and the long-term goal: the Winter Olympics 2022.