The year 2020 is now behind us, so it's time to look back at this "Corona year" and look ahead to the new year 2021.

The corona pandemic has worldwide completely changed the sports, who would have thought a year ago that football would become normal in an empty stadium? Or Formula 1 without spectators? In winter sports, the ski jumpers fly without fans, the biathletes run and shoot without cheers, and the alpine skiers fight for victory without the traditional bells of the fans from Switzerland.

For us in natural track luge, Covid-19 brought drastic changes: Traveling to remote World Cup locations like Moscow or Vatra Dornei is impossible. The 2020/2021 World Cup started in Winterleiten (AUT) without the strong team from Russia, other nations such as Argentina, Brazil, Romania etc. were also missing from the start. After all, the anti-corona protocol has passed its baptism of fire, athletes, coaches and officials have strictly adhered to the protective measures and thus contributed to the smooth running of the double World Cup.

From a sporting point of view, the World Cup opener has put some interesting facts on the table. With Christian Schopf (AUT) and Daniela Mittermair (ITA) there were two new faces on the podium for the single-seaters. The fight for the top 10 positions has also become closer, the time gaps in the midfield were sometimes extremely tight. This shows that the top in natural track luge is getting wider, the national teams are working very well and the level in the FIL group is also increasing. With the brand South Tyrol and the Trenker bakery, we have two strong and reliable partners at our side, and all World Cups are broadcast all over the world via live stream with comments in German and English.

Now it's time for all of us not to give up. Despite the challenging situation, the direction is right, if we all continue to pull together, then the Olympic dream will live on. The true spirit of a sport shows itself in difficult situations. The current World Cup season with races in only two countries was and is the only right thing to do in this delicate situation. This is the only way we can reasonably ensure the highlight of the season: the 23rd FIL World Championships in Luge on Natural Track in Umhausen (AUT) from February 4th to 7th, 2021. These title fights become the business card for our beloved sport.

With best wishes for a healthy, successful and happy new year!

Yours,

Andreas Castiglioni

Director for Sport and Technology, Natural Track