Preview Olympic season

Yanqing (FIL) The 44th season of the FIL Luge World Cup in the Olympic winter 2021/2022 promises excitement like never before. At the end of the winter, the season's highlight with the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing is on the calendar, but all roads to the Olympic Games lead via the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup. At the nine World Cup stops in six countries (China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Latvia and Switzerland), the points for the Olympic qualification have to be won first and then an optimal starting group for the season's highlight has to be found out. The German head coach Norbert Loch sums it up: "It will be a really tough season. If you're not in the World Cup, you're not going to the Olympics. But the big question is: Who will be number one at the end? From my point of view, twelve men, six women and six doubles can compete for medals. Any one of them can end up on top with Olympic gold and that's what makes it so exciting!"

Preview Men: Repilov, Loch, Gleirscher or Fischnaller - who will be on top?

World Champion Roman Repilov from Russia, World Cup dominator Felix Loch from Germany, Austrian Olympic Champion David Gleirscher and his brother, Sprint World Champion Nico Gleirscher, the two South Tyrolean cousins Kevin and Dominik Fischnaller, former World Champion Semen Pavlichenko from Russia, the US stars Chris Mazdzer and Tucker West as well as former World Junior Champion and Youth Olympic Champion Kristers Aparjods from Latvia, they all have ambitions and chances for Olympic precious metal, for World Cup crystal balls in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup Series and continental titles.

With 48 individual victories, three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch (GER) is second in individual World Cup successes, behind Armin Zoeggeler (ITA) who stood at the top of the podium 57 times and ended his career in 2014. If the dominator of last winter manages nine victories in the 13 World Cup races (including the BMW Sprint World Cup), he could join World Cup leader Armin Zöggeler at the top of the eternal leaderboard!

Four experienced Olympians want to defend or repeat their Olympic medals in Beijing 2022. Felix Loch (GER) has already won two gold medals in Men’s Singles, David Gleirscher (AUT) one gold, Chris Mazdzer (USA) one silver and Johannes Ludwig (GER) one bronze.

Chris Mazdzer wants to be the first luge athlete to compete in three Olympic disciplines in Beijing 2022. He wants to compete in the Singles, the Doubles with Jayson Terdiman and in the Team relay in the Olympic winter. However, the very beginning of the US team's autumn training on the 2014 Olympic track near Sochi in Russia did not go according to plan for the American Chris Mazdzer. In the first few days of practice, 2018 Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer suffered a broken foot during single-seater practice when he crashed into an ice rail.

Armin Zoeggeler (ITA) is still the record holder in the individual World Cup victories. The South Tyrolean, who ended his career in 2014 and is now the Vice-President for Technical Affairs at the International Luge Federation (FIL), leads the ranking of the most individual victories in the World Cup with 57. With his nine victories in twelve EBERSPÄCHER World Cup races in the winter of 2020/21, Felix Loch from Germany caught up rapidly last season. With 48 individual victories, Felix Loch is in a commanding second place in the record list of winners in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup.