Felix Loch – the evergreen
In preparation for the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026
Berchtesgaden (FIL/26 Jan 2026) He sleds and sleds and sleds. Even at 36, Felix Loch is still far from thinking about retiring. “In two years, the World Championships will take place here at Königssee,” says the German, “which is of course very, very interesting.” He will be 38 years old by then. From today's perspective, he simply thinks out loud: “In the end, it would only be two years until the next Olympic Games.”
These musings give the impression that Felix Loch is not yet at peace with his career. Yet he is highly decorated: at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, he won the gold medal as the youngest luger ever. He repeated this triumph in 2014 and is also a member of the German relay team with Nathalie Geisenberger, Tobias Wendl, and Tobias Arlt, which won this competition when it was held for the first time. He has a total of seven world championship titles in singles to his name – a record. He has finished first in 55 World Cup races. The record holder Armin Zöggeler (Italy) has 57 victories, a mark that is within reach. He has triumphed seven times in the overall World Cup.
But the 1.91-meter-tall model athlete also knows the downside. At the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, he was confidently in the lead after three runs. All he had to do was complete the fourth run without any mistakes. However, he failed to do so due to a mistake in turn nine. Instead of tying Georg Hackl's golden hat trick as the radiant winner, he dramatically missed out on the podium. “I had three good runs and one that was just awful,” Loch said, analyzing his performance in South Korea, “but that's sport and it's part of it. You can't always be at the top.” At the 2022 Games, Loch was not in medal form from the start.
The luger, who was used to success, struggled to come to terms with the mishap in Pyeongchang for a long time. When he became world champion in Winterberg in 2019, it was a real relief for him. He admitted afterwards that it had been one of his most important victories. Nevertheless, the superiority of the young Felix Loch was gone. The former serial winner did not win a World Cup race for almost two years. His career seemed to be gradually petering out. Younger athletes such as his teammate Max Langenhan and Austria's Jonas Müller were usually faster.
This season, however, Felix Loch has found his way back to success. He won the season opener in Winterberg, followed by two more victories in Lake Placid and Sigulda. “I didn't expect the season to start so well,” said Loch, but he added that the feeling had already been different during preparation: “I immediately felt comfortable on the sled, and that has become increasingly important to me over the years.” It seems that “a lot of things were done right” in the summer. One reason for this is probably that his father, Norbert Loch, can once again devote himself specifically to working with his son after stepping down as national coach.
In addition, the tinkerer has worked intensively on his sled. “We've taken a few steps forward,” he hints vaguely, without giving any concrete details. For the start, he focused less on strength training and more on technique. With success: not only on the track, but also at the start, the German is regularly among the front runners this winter.
As in previous years, Felix Loch is the first name mentioned when it comes to the favorites in the men's competition. With the best times in the training weeks before the start of the season, he has already made his mark. “I really like the track,” he admits, “it worked very well right from the start.” He himself simply says, “I want to compete for the medals.”
Loch says that his sporting rebirth is not that dramatic. “But I'm happy that I can show one or two people that I can still luge.” And what is going through the record world champion's mind? “I never thought that I wouldn't be able to do it anymore.” As long as his body keeps up and he enjoys it, he will continue. That's why Felix Loch keeps sledding and sledding and sledding.
See Felix Loch's Olympic journey on Olympics.com ->
