Overview

• After a year-long retirement, four-time Olympic champion Thorsten Margis moved from Francesco Friedrich’s sled to Johannes Lochner’s to begin preparations for the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
• Margis set his sights on winning gold medals in both the two-man and four-man bobsled events at Cortina.
• He highlighted their victory over Friedrich in the two-man event at the 2023 World Championships in St. Moritz as proof of Lochner’s speed under pressure.
• Margis faces competition for four-man seats from pushers Georg Fleischhauer, Florian Bauer, Erec Bruckert and Jörn Wenzel as he seeks a stable spot on Lochner’s sled.
• The high-profile switch ended last winter’s public pusher dispute and reshaped the rivalry between Friedrich and Lochner ahead of the Olympic season.