Park City (pps) The USA will host World Luge Championships for only the second time since 1983. Then at Lake Placid, Canada’s Miroslav Zajonc, Steffi Martin and the doubles Joerg Hoffmann- Jochen Pietzsch (all of the former GDR), won the titles. 22 years later at the 38th World Championships at Park City the top favourite in the men’s event is Albert Demchenko, the first ever Russian to win the overall Viessmann World Cup. In the women’s singles, then as now the German athletes are considered the hottest contenders. And in the doubles, more than half a dozen doubles are in with a chance for the gold medal. Even a German success in the team event can no longer be taken for granted.
Particularly the American hosts nurture medal hopes. “We have the same chance as everybody else, but we want to win on our home-track, of course“, says Brian Martin, the 2002 Olympic silver medallist in the doubles together with his partner Mark Grimmette. In the men’s event Tony Benshoof is considered a medal contender. And after Ashley Hayden’s third place at the Viessmann World Cup at Winterberg, Germany, there are even some American medal hopes in the women’s competition. “There is a difference whether you persuade yourself to defeat the Germans one of these days or whether you really did it”, Ashley Hayden said demonstrating newfound confidence.

Everything else but a German success in the women’s event would be a great surprise, however. National coach Thomas Schwab’s team have been undefeated in 56 successive Viessmann World Cup races; Germany has achieved clean medal sweeps at all World Championships since 1999 Koenigssee, Germany. This year the top favourites for the title are Barbara Niedernhuber, who just celebrated her first international title by winning the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup, title holder Silke Kraushaar and 2002 Olympic champion Sylke Otto who is now the sole record champion in the Viessmann Luge World Cup with 34 victories.

Albert Demchenko would like to follow in Sergei Danilin’s footsteps. The Soviet Russian won the World title in 1981 at Hammarstrand in Sweden. However, German title holder David Moeller, who travels to Park City with the recommendation of two Viessmann World Cup victories overseas this season (Lake Placid and Calgary); veteran Georg Hackl (GER), who made his World Championship debut 20 years ago at Oberhof, Germany, finishing eleventh and has won three gold (1989, 1990, 1997), seven silver and one bronze medal since then; local hero Tony Benshoof, Austrian Markus Kleinheinz and, last but not least, Italy’s 2002 Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler want to prevent the 1996 European silver medallist from making his dream come true.

No other event is as open as the double-seater. Even though two of this season’s winning doubles, former Austrian World champions Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger (injured) and Germans Sebastian Schmidt-Andre Forker, who failed to qualify for the German team, are not competing at Park City, there are at least seven doubles with serious title and medal chances. In addition to Linger-Linger (winners at Altenberg, Germany) and Schmidt-Forker (winners at Lake Placid), the further victors this winter were Germany’s title holders, Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch (Koenigssee, Germany, and Igls, Austria), their team-mates Florschuetz-Wustlich (Sigulda, Latvia, and Oberhof, Germany), Olympic silver medallists Grimmette-Brian Martin (Calgary, Canada) and Italy’s Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber (Winterberg, Germany).