FIL President Fendt about the Team Relay: „Great development“
Berlin (pps) The 59th Congress of the International Luge Federation (FIL) in Berlin was influenced by the inclusion of the Team Relay in the program of the next Olympic Winter Games. „This is a great and historically significant development of the FIL“, said FIL President Josef Fendt (GER) about the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). „I am glad and – I do admit - also a bit proud to be able to experience this during my term of office“, he continued.
In his report to the Congress, Fendt outlined the development of the sport of luge within the Olympic movement from its recognition as an Olympic sport in Innsbruck in 1964 to the inclusion of the Team Relay in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, as a forth discipline besides women's and men's singles and doubles. At the same time, the two-time World Champion (1970 and 1974) also spoke about the Team Relay’s exhausting road to Olympic maturity. „There were many ups and downs, including some setbacks. But we did not give up“, said Fendt.
Fendt also called other FIL activities of the recent past a „success story“. „I may state that the overall positive development of the FIL has continued and is also going to continue in the future. We are an innovative federation“, he said and quoted as examples the first U-23 World Championships, the staging of the next European Championships as a race within the Viessmann World Cup, future continental championships for Juniors within the races of a Junior World Cup, the expansion of the Viessmann World Cup to nine events per season, and the sprint test.
