Martins Dukurs (born 31 March 1984) is a former Latvian skeleton racer, currently a coach, who has competed since 1998. He is a six-time world champion in men's skeleton, a double Olympic silver winner (at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014), and the athlete with the most World Cup titles with a total of 11, having won eight consecutive titles between 2010 and 2017, plus another three consecutive titles between 2020 and 2022.
Career Dukurs finished seventh in the men's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and sixth in the men's skeleton event at the 2007 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz. He won the gold medal in the men's event at the 2011 FIBT World Championships, 2012 FIBT World Championships, 2015 FIBT World Championships, 2016 FIBT World Championships and 2017 FIBT World Championships.
Martins won the overall World Cup for the 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 season, 2016–17 season and 2019–20 season.
At the end of the 2019–20 Skeleton World Cup season, he had 54 World Cup race victories.
His older brother Tomass is also a skeleton racer. Both he and his brother qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics. In 2010 Martins Dukurs was decorated with the Order of the Three Stars.
In November 2017, Sochi gold medalist Alexander Tretiakov was disqualified by the IOC, and his medal stripped from him; however, a decision on whether Martins Dukurs would be granted a gold medal was not made by the IBSF. He would have been the first-ever Latvian athlete to win gold at the Winter Olympics. However, Tretiakov would appeal against his disqualification to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who overturned his disqualification and reinstated his gold medal.
On 19 January 2018, Martins was retroactively disqualified from the 2018 St. Moritz World Cup for having a too-hard sled.
Martins and Tomass' father, Dainis Dukurs, is a former bobsleigh brakeman, former manager of the Sigulda sledding track, sled designer, and coach of the Latvian skeleton team.
In August 2022, Dukurs was appointed a performance coach for the British national team.Skeleton legend Dukurs appointed Britain's performance coach Under his leadership, Great Britain won two gold medals in the skeleton competitions at the 2026 Winter Olympics, their best-ever Winter Olympics total.
Career results Skeleton World Cup SeasonPlacePoints1234567892004–0519th139WIN37ALT20IGL—SIG14CES10STM19LPL132005–0620th151CAL26LPL10IGL20SIG20KON16STM14ALT192006–0712th255CAL18PKC23LPL24NAG15IGL9CES— WIN3KON52007–085th1369CAL7PKC11LPL4CES17CES27STM6KON11 WIN12008–096th1282 WIN3 ALT2 IGL3KON4STM17WIN12PKC11LKP112009–101st1694 PKC1 LKP3 CES2 WIN1ALT5 KON1 STM3 IGL12010–111st1719WHI5 CAL1 PKC3 LKP2 IGL1 WIN1 STM1 CES12011–121st1751 IGL1 LPL1 WIN1 ALT1KON6 STM1 WHI1 CAL12012–131st2010 LKP1 PKC1 WHI2 WIN1 LPL1 ALT1 KON1 IGL1 SOC12013–141st1720 CAL1 PKC2 LKP8 WIN1 STM11 STM21 IGL1 KON12014–151st1770 LKP1 CAL1 ALT1 KON2 STM1 LPL1 IGL1 SOC22015–161st1785 ALT1 WIN1 KON11 LPL1 PAC1 WHI1 STM2 KON212016–171st1662 WHI4 LPL5 ALT2 WIN1 STM1 KON6 IGL1 PYE12017–184th1440 LPL1 PAC2 WHI6 WIN2 IGL1 ALT5 STMDSQ KON22018–193rd1533 SIG2 WIN7 ALT7 IGL1 STM8 LPL2 CAL13 CAL242019–201st1665 LKP12 LKP12 WIN4 PAC2 IGL1 KON7 STM1 SIG12020–211st1456 SIG11 SIG21 IGL11 IGL21 WIN2 STM2KON11IGL3—2021–221st1623 IGL12IGL211 ALT13WIN14 ALT21 SIG3 WIN21 STM1
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