Lausanne (pps) Josef Fendt, the President of the International Luge Federation (FIL), has traveled to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne and emphatically promoted both applications of the FIL again. In a meeting with Gilbert Felli, Olympic Games Executive Director, IOC Sports Director Kelly Fairweather and Christophe de Kepper, Chief of Staff of the Executive Office of the President, Fendt brought forward the FIL’s arguments for the inclusion of natural track luge and team competition artificial track in the Olympic program. IOC President Jacques Rogge was unable to participate in the meeting due to a sudden illness, but announced that he would call Fendt personally.

„The IOC is treating our applications as two completely separate matters“, Fendt reported after the meeting at the IOC headquarters. „The difference is that a new competition venue has to be built for natural track luge, but not for the team competition artificial track“.

While a decision on the inclusion of natural track luge is expected for the near future, the team competition will probably not be on the IOC’s agenda before the fall of 2006. In the upcoming winter, Fendt said, IOC observers will attend a team competition in order to scrutinize the event on site. Their conclusions will then be evaluated for the IOC’s decision.