The pre-Olympic luge winter season has turned out to be more unpredictable than ever before, ahead of the main event of the season – the World Championships. Nine events in the Viessmann World Cup and the BMW Sprint World Cup have already been staged before the
47th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) in Innsbruck (AUT). There have been six winners in both the men’s and women’s events so far this season. The doubles event has been dominated by the almost unbeatable pairing of Toni Eggert/Sascha
Benecken (GER), who have notched seven wins.
"The Olympics are coming, and all nations are redoubling their efforts," says Germany’s Felix Loch by way of explanation for the larger number of top athletes in the men’s event. It is likely that most athletes have their sights set on this weekend’s World Championships but are actually thinking further ahead to next year’s Olympics.
In addition to Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion Loch, his compatriot Johannes Ludwig, US luger Tucker West (two wins), and the two Russians Semen Pavlichenko and Roman Repilov have all tasted victory in the last winter season before the 2018 Olympics in
PyeongChang (KOR). In addition, Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) won the BMW Sprint in Park City. Austria’s World Championship hopeful Wolfgang Kindl has made it onto the podium six times, but never as far as the top step.
The women’s event has also seen no fewer than six lugers with at least one win this season – the Germans Dajana Eitberger, Natalie
Geisenberger and Tatjana Hüfner, who is tied on 37 singles wins with record-holder Sylke Otto (GER), Erin Hamlin as a double winner in Park
City, Alex Gough, who won her home World Cup in Whistler, and Russian luger Tatyana Ivanova who won last time out in Sigulda.
The dozen winners compete for five different national associations (GER, USA, CAN, RUS, ITA), with Latvia and Austria also securing podium
finishes.
For more information, please contact:
Wolfgang Harder
Tel: +49 173 60 733 52
Email: wolfgang.harder@t-online.de
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