Preview PyeongChang Viessmann Luge World Cup

A record number of 29 nations have registered to compete in the 8th Viessmann World Cup on the new Olympic track in PyeongChang (KOR). Almost exactly one year ahead of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (February 9-25, 2018) in the Alpensia Sliding Centre, teams from China, which will also host the Olympics in 2022, Portugal, recently confirmed as a provisional FIL member, and Turkey are all set to compete for the first time.

This exceeds the previous maximum of 27 nations at the Viessmann World Cup in Innsbruck during the 2013/2014 winter season. That same winter, 26 nations took part in the Olympic test in the Sanki Sliding Centre ahead of the Sochi games. The 30 national associations have signed up a total of 156 athletes (57 men, 2 additional starters, 47 women, 26 doubles and a maximum of 15 relay teams).

Although much is being made of the trial run for the first Winter Olympics in Korea, the lugers will still be competing for the Joska crystal trophies for the overall winners of the Viessmann World Cup. Only the doubles competition has been virtually decided in favor of the World Champions Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER). Aside from that, the penultimate races of the season in the women’s, men’s, and Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW promise plenty of excitement.

In the women’s event, Natalie Geisenberger (GER) has a 77-point advantage over World Champion Tatjana Hüfner (GER) and could equal the five overall victories achieved by the two record-holders Hüfner and Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (GER).

Vice World Champion Roman Repilov from Russia currently leads the men’s classification with 732 points. Olympic Champion Felix Loch must overcome a deficit of 77 points if he wants to avoid enduring his first season without a title since the winter of 2007/2008. Former World Champion Semen Pavlichenko from Russia currently lies third, 86 points behind.

The overall winner of the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW is also undecided. The German contingent (331) leads by a comfortable margin of 61 points, but behind them Canada, Russia (both 270 points), the USA (261), Latvia (250), and Austria (240) are all involved in a tight head-to-head contest.

The season finale will take place on the artificial ice track in Altenberg, Saxony, on February 25-26, 2017.

Alpensia Sliding Centre to make its debut PyeongChang (RWH) The Alpensia Sliding Centre is set to make its debut when the Viessmann Luge World Cup is staged there. The first artificial ice track in Korea will be put through its paces in an international competition for the first time. The Alpensia Sliding Centre is the second artificial ice track in Asia after Nagano (JPN). The ice track for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (CHN) is currently in the planning stage.

The artificial track within walking distance of the main press centre is 1,376 metres in length, with a vertical drop of 116.32 metres. The average gradient is 9.48%. The maximum speed limit of 136 km/h introduced by the International Luge Federation (FIL) in 2010 was not exceeded during preliminary homologation in autumn, when athletes of varying abilities from a range of countries tested the facility.

The track, which received two thirds of its funding from the state of Korea and one third from Gangwon Province, was built between March 2014 and December 2016. At next year’s Winter Olympics, there will be room for 7,000 spectators per day for the four FIL races in the women’s, men’s, doubles, and team relay events. 2018 Winter Olympics to feature over 100 events for the first time PyeongChang (RWH) For the first time in history, there will be more than 100 events at the XXIII Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Medals will be awarded in 102 events from February 9-25, 2018 – 50 for men, 44 for women, and eight mixed competitions.

The Olympic program will feature the women’s, men’s, and doubles luge disciplines, in addition to the team relay, which was first introduced at the 2014 Games in Sochi. Korea will host its second Olympics, having previously staged the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.

This will be the third time the Winter Olympics have come to East Asia, following Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998 (both JPN). It was third time lucky for PyeongChang, following failed Olympic bids in 2010 and 2014. Annecy (FRA) and Munich (GER) had also applied to host the Games.

Geisenberger, Hüfner and Otto all level on 37 wins PyeongChang (RWH) Thanks to the narrowest of wins in Oberhof, Germany’s Natalie

Geisenberger now joins Tatjana Hüfner and Sylke Otto (both GER) as one of the alltime record winners in the Viessmann Luge World Cup.

The trio now has 37 victories apiece in the Viessmann Luge World Cup.

Olympic Champion Geisenberger, who defeated Tatjana Hüfner by just one thousandth of a second in Oberhof, had won 33 races prior to the current pre-Olympic winter season, during which she has added four more victories. Sylke Otto took her 37 wins between 1994 and her retirement after the 2006/2007 winter season. Hugo Daniel Martins Alves is Portugal’s first luger PyeongChang (RWH) Hugo Daniel Martins Alves is Portugal’s first ever luge competitor. The athlete from the country of the reigning European football champions, who celebrated his 36th birthday on February 13, 2017, is looking forward to making his Viessmann World Cup debut on the new Olympic track in PyeongChang, Korea, this coming weekend (February 18-19, 2017).

The Executive Board recently confirmed Portugal’s National Association as a provisional member of the FIL. The World Federation now has a total of 52 member associations.

For more information, please contact:

Wolfgang Harder RWH

Tel: +49 173 60 733 52

Email: wolfgang.harder@t-online.de

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