Hamlin, Loch, Plankensteiner-Haselrieder and Germany’s relay team
Cesana (pps) Defending champions at the upcoming 42nd World Championships of the International Luge Federation, FIL, are Erin Hamlin (USA), Felix Loch (GER), Gerhard Plankensteiner-Oswald Haselrieder (ITA) as well as the German team.
US luger Erin Hamlin has long since secured a place in history – after all she achieved a historic feat. First of all the then 22-year old student became the first female US luger to take the World Championship title at the 41st FIL Luge World Championships in Lake Placid. And then she put an end to the winning streak of Germany’s women: after a total of 88 victories in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, three Olympic (1998, 2002 and 2008) as well as eight World Championship titles (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008) the German women’s luge team had to stomach a defeat - in the 100th event! Felix Loch, 2008 youngest World champion in the history of the FIL, successfully defended his title in the Olympic host city of 1932 and 1980.
And Plankensteiner-Haselrieder, doubles’ World champions in Lake Placid, wrote a chapter of luge history, too. The team that had ended their active career in luge after the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, achieved the first doubles’ Gold medal for Italy after a 19-year long draught. The last Gold dated back to 1990 in Calgary, Canada, when Hansjoerg Raffl-Norbert Huber took gold for Italy.
At the 2009 Worlds the German team with Natalie Geisenberger, Felix Loch and André Florschuetz-Torsten Wustlich took the World Championship title ahead of Austria (Nina Reithmayer, Daniel Pfister, Peter Penz-Georg Fischler) and Latvia (Maija Tiruma, Guntis Rekis, Andris Sics-Juris Sics).
