Seven top 10 finishes for the US team ahead of Lake Placid

The US team travels to the two Viessmann Luge World Cups onhome soil on the back of seven top 10 finishes. A few other positive trends are discernibleahead of the first event on December 4-5, 2015 on the artificial track at Mount VanHoevenberg in Lake Placid, NY followed a week later by the event in Park City, Utah(December 11-12).

After a botched first run at the season opener in Innsbruck, the new pairing of JustinKrewson/Andrew Sherk firmly positioned themselves among the doubles elite by postingthe fifth-fastest time on their second run. Krewson/Sherk had already taken a shockingvictory in the Nations Cup on Friday.

Olympic bronze medallist Erin Hamlin ended up seventh, having been in second place athalf-time. She reckons that perhaps it was snowfall that may have prevented her fromclaiming a podium finish on the 1976 Olympic track, as her second heat was goodotherwise. "I hope there are consistent weather conditions in Lake Placid," said 2009

World Champion Hamlin, whose teammates Summer Britcher (fifth) and Emily Sweeney(sixth) finished just ahead of her.

The other top 10 finishers from the US team in Tyrol were Tucker West in seventh, ChrisMazdzer in eighth, and the team relay lugers in sixth.

Alex Gough to miss Lake Placid

Canadian Alex Gough, who finished third at the season-openingViessmann Luge World Cup in Innsbruck (AUT), will not compete in the second and thirdrounds of the race series in Lake Placid, NY and Park City, Utah so she can concentrateon her studies. The 28-year-old will return to action at the Viessmann Luge World Cup inher hometown of Calgary on December 18-19, 2015.

"I’m now a full-time student at the University of Calgary in Civil Engineering," Gough explains on her website. "And by full-time I mean I’m taking the minimum 3 courses, which,coincidently, is the maximum I can handle while training and competing." Canada’s headcoach Wolfgang Staudinger describes the commitment of his star pupil, who finishedfourth at the Sochi Olympics and is a two-time bronze medallist at the World

Championships: "When other athletes head out to the Christmas market, Alex has herhead buried in her books."

Lake Placid to host the 64th FIL Conference in 2016

The two-time Olympic venue of Lake Placid is set to host the 64th Conferenceof the International Luge Federation (FIL) next year. On June 17-18, 2016, FIL delegates will meetin the town which hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1980.

The name of Lake Placid is associated closely with the history of the FIL. In 1983 it hosted the firstever FIL World Championships to be held outside of Europe, and it was once again host to thechampionships in 2009. The artificial track on Mount Van Hoevenberg, built for the first and onlyGoodwill Games held in Lake Placid in 2000, will showcase a Viessmann World Cup for the 14thtime in 2015.

Tristan Jeskanen is the first Finn to compete in the Viessmann World Cup

Tristan Jeskanen is set to become the first ever athlete from Finland tocompete in the Viessmann World Cup, a first in the history of the International Luge Federation(FIL). Jeskanen, 19, holds dual citizenship in the USA and Finland. He will make his debut at thesecond round of the Viessmann World Cup this Friday and Saturday (December 4-5) in LakePlacid in the US state of New York. As a newcomer, Jeskanen will compete in the Nations Cup inan attempt to earn a place in the World Cup starting line-up.

Jeskanen began his career on the US team as a doubles partner to Justin Krewson. The duo cameeighth at the 2013 Junior World Championships in Park City in the US state of Utah, and finishedlast season in 11th place.

The only other Finn in the FIL history books is Ray Lindfors who finished in 26th place at the 16thFIL World Championships at Königssee, Germany in 1974. The previous year, Lindfors hadfinished 16th at the 20th FIL European Championships, which were also held on the Königsseetrack. He secured his best result at the World Championships in Hammarstrand, Sweden in 1975,finishing in sixth place in the men’s doubles alongside Bo Lindbergh.

2014 winners: Natalie Geisenberger, Tucker West und Eggert/Benecken

In the winter of 2014-2015, Tucker West ended a 17-year drought for USlugers by winning the Viessmann World Cup in Lake Placid. The last American to feature in the listof Viessmann World Cup winners before that was Wendel Suckow, who won the pre-Olympic testcompetition in Nagano, Japan in 1997, which was also the World Cup finale.

In addition to Tucker West, female slider Natalie Geisenberger and the doubles pairing of ToniEggert/Sascha Benecken (all GER) were all winners at last year’s event. Germany won the teamcompetition ahead of Italy and the host team from the USA featuring Erin Hamlin, Tucker West andMatthew Mortensen/Jayson Terdiman.

Special training for German’ team in Lake Placid following last year’sanomaly

6, 8, 14, 23 and 29: at first glance these may appear to be a selectionof lottery numbers, but in reality they are the final positions of the German lugers at the lastyear’s Viessmann World Cup in Lake Placid, NY. This represented the German men’smost comprehensive defeat for many years and was an unprecedented anomaly for thenumber one luge nation, which had filled the top three positions in the overall standings ofthe men’s Viessmann Luge World Cup in winter 2012/2013.

Unusual situations require unusual actions, so the German Federation (BSD) staged oneof its five selection races for the new winter of 2015-2016 season in Lake Placid, travellingthere with seven athletes to let them practice for a few days on the demanding track atMount Van Hoevenberg.

"The reason for training in Lake Placid was simply that the men face a much more difficultdriving challenge than in the women’s and men’s doubles event due to their higher startingposition," explained head coach Norbert Loch. "So our men wanted to undertake morepainstaking preparations for this challenging track in North America."

The acid test will come during the men’s event this Friday (December 4, 2015), when theViessmann World Cup returns to Mount Van Hoevenberg.

The Timetable of Lake Placid

Date, Discipline, Local time, CET

4 December 2015

1st run, doubles, 09:30, 15:30

2nd run, doubles, 10:50, 16:50

1st run, men’s singles, 12:10, 18:10

2nd run, men’s singles, 13:45, 19:45

5 December 2015

1st run, women’s singles, 10:40, 16:40

2nd run, women’s singles, 12:00, 18:00

Team relay, 14:00, 20:00

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