The World Championship bronze medallist, pushed by Kevin Kuske, Christian Poser and Eric Franke, clocked in at 1min 36.80sec after two runs at the Utah Olympic Park.

Four-man action was cancelled at last weekend's World Cup opener in Lake Placid due to varying ice conditions at the New York venue.

It means that two four-man events will take place in Park City, a host venue at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Walther's success came in front of two Canadian crews, with Justin Kripps driving Lascelles Brown, Ben Coakwell and Neville Wright to silver in 1:36.83.

Bronze went to pilot Chris Spring and his brake team of Jesse Lumsden, Alexander Kopacz and Olusyi Smith who stopped the watches at 1:36.86.

Spring was just two hundredths of a second off the Olympic starting record, which was set at Salt Lake City 2002 by Martin Annen's Swiss crew, when he clocked 4.74 on run one.

World champion Johannes Lochner of Germany had to settle for fourth place on 1:36.87 despite leading after the first run.

Russia's defending overall World Cup champion Alexander Kasjanov finished down in 10th on 1:37.06.

Park City did not host a leg at last season's World Cup with competition returning to the American venue for 2017-2018.

The women's bobsleigh was also held today with defending overall World Cup champion Jamie Greubel Poser triumphing on home ice.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic bronze medallist was pushed by Aja Evans last season and in Lake Placid last week, but teamed up with Lauren Gibbs this time to win in 1:40.72.

This was an improvement on Poser's display in Lake Placid when she missed the podium in fourth.

It meant that Canada's double Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz, the winners last week, had to make do with silver in 1:40.82.

Bronze went to American Elana Meyers Taylor who won silver with Gibbs in Lake Placid but teamed up with former track star Lolo Jones today to clock 1:40.99.

Both the men's and women's skeleton will be held in Park City tomorrow, as well as the second four-man bobsleigh race.

There will be no two-man as two events were held last week in Lake Placid to compensate for the cancelled four-man.