Canada's Vathje, Greszczyszyn reach skeleton podium

Canada's Elisabeth Vathje captured her second medal of the skeleton World Cup season on Friday, scoring a silver medal in Winterberg, Germany, while Dave Greszczyszyn reached the men's podium for the first time with a bronze.

1st career World Cup medal for Greszczyszyn

Calgary's Elisabeth Vathje took silver at the skeleton World Cup stop in Winterberg, Germany, on Friday. (File/The Canadian Press)

Canada's Elisabeth Vathje captured her second medal of the skeleton World Cup season on Friday, scoring a silver medal in Winterberg, Germany.

Vathje's two-run combined time of one minute, 56.10 seconds was bested only by Germany's Jacqueline Loelling, who finished 0.24 ahead of the Calgary native.

"It feels really nice to be back on the podium," beamed Vathje. "Training has been a massive struggle, and I just knew going into this race that I needed to have fun. That was my goal today — to just really enjoy it."

Elisabeth Vathje's wild ride to World Cup silver medal in Winterberg

7 years ago
Duration 2:04
The Calgarian slid to an IBSF World Cup skeleton silver medal in Winterberg, Germany where she was the defending champion

Russia's Elena Nikitina took bronze, just ahead of Canada's Mirela Rahneva and Jane Channell, who finished fourth and sixth, respectively.

Germany's Jacqueline Loelling wins gold on home track

7 years ago
Duration 2:09
Loelling won her second straight World Cup skeleton race, this time on her home track at the IBSF World Cup event in Winterberg, Germany

Dave Greszczyszyn came away with bronze in the men's event, which was called off after the first run due to weather conditions. 

Greszczyszyn, 38, reached a World Cup podium for the first time in his career. 

"I've been working towards this day since my first season in 2008. I came close two weeks ago in Whistler, and it didn't work out. I stayed focus on the plan, had good training every day this week, and I put the runs together slowly to figure my way through every corner down this track," said Greszczyszyn.

"I picked a pair of runners I felt confident in and followed the game plan to push as hard as I could to the crest of the hill and let my bodyweight and driving do the rest."

Dave 'Grizz' Greszczyszyn roars to 1st World Cup podium finish

7 years ago
Duration 1:41
The 38-year-old from Brampton, Ontario was in third place after the first skeleton run at the IBSF World Cup in Winterberg, Germany. Greszczyszyn won bronze, his first career World Cup medal, when the 2nd run was cancelled due to inclement weather.

The Canadian clocked in at 56.88 seconds, behind Korean winner Sungbin Yun (56.62) and Latvia's Martins Dukurs (56.68). 

Sungbin Yun upsets Martins Dukurs in Winterberg

7 years ago
Duration 2:00
The South Korean upset runner-up Martins Dukurs, who has won the last 7 IBSF World Cup men's skeleton races in Winterberg, Germany

Coverage of the World Cup stop continues on CBCSports.ca on Saturday with women's bobsleigh (3:50 a.m. ET, 5:20 a.m. ET) and two-man bobsleigh (7:30 a.m. ET, 9 a.m. ET)

On Sunday, competition concludes with the four-man bobsleigh event (5:30 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. ET).