After the ice trainings in Norway and Latvia, Austria's Olympic lugers will continue their season preparation on their home track in Innsbruck-Igls
Innsbruck (ÖRV) After the track trainings in Norway and Latvia, Austria's Olympic lugers will continue their season preparation next week on their home track in Innsbruck-Igls. The conclusion of the first two training weeks is positive throughout, the World Cup will start in one month with the Olympic dress rehearsal in Yanqing.
The physical preparation and material development took six months, and there are only five weeks left for ice training due to the weather. It is important to make the most of every day and that is exactly what Rene Friedl's protégés have managed to do so far - the ÖRV head coach and sports director was correspondingly satisfied with the first interim results.
"In Lillehammer it was a bit warm and rainy at the beginning, but at the end the ice quality was very good and we were close to the track record. Sigulda is of a completely different calibre in terms of characteristics, the track is one of the most technically demanding, everyone was much more challenged here. All in all, we have had eleven training days on ice so far, the programme is also very intensive due to the material tests, the weekend off will certainly be good for the team," said Friedl, who added: "The atmosphere is good, the focus is on point, the performances on the track are appealing. We now have the training courses in Igls and Altenberg, then on 2 November we go to China, where we will test the Olympic track for the first time as a collective and then start the World Cup season."
Sprint World Champion Nico Gleirscher is similarly positive, having taken the momentum from the previous season well with him. "In Lillehammer, it was important to build up the right feeling again after the long, ice-free period and to find the looseness on the sled. Sigulda was the first acid test with the many steering points," NIco Gleirscher said, who sees everyone in the five-strong men's team on an equal footing. "Due to the material tests, comparisons are difficult, but you could see in between that everyone is very close. We worked very well in the summer, motivating and pushing ourselves in every single run."
On the women's side, Madeleine Egle, last year's overall World Cup fourth-place finisher and, at 23, the "longest-serving" of the domestic quartet, made the strongest impression in training so far. As in the men's event, three women per nation are eligible to compete at the Olympic Games - in addition to the team World champion from 2020, Hannah Prock (21), Lisa Schulte (20) and Madeleine's younger sister Selina Egle (18) also want to master the qualification for Beijing. There will also be an internal elimination in the doubles with regard to the Olympic qualification. Besides the overall World Cup winners Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller, Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher as well as Juri Gatt/Riccardo Schöpf are competing for the two Beijing tickets available in this event.
For Thomas Steu, the scramble for places has long since begun; the Vorarlberg native, who was troubled by a corona illness in summer, has long since recovered physically and is stronger than ever. "We have worked very well in the weight room and have found our way back into luge relatively quickly, we are also on a very good path with the material tests. In the upcoming trainings in Igls and Altenberg, it is important to filter out the one sled we will take to China and continue to get on track," said the Army athlete, who finished fourth in his Olympic debut in Pyeongchang with partner Lorenz Koller. "In 2018 that was a super result for us, but next February we probably wouldn't be satisfied with that."
Video of the training of the Austrian national luge team in Sigulda (Latvia) in mid-October 2021 ->
