FIL Fair Play Award presented to Chris Eissler

Altenberg (FIL/4 Feb 2023) During the award ceremony for the 6th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup on February 04, 2023, at the SachsenEngerie Ice Canal in Altenberg, FIL Secretary General Dwight Bell (USA) presented former German luge athlete Chris Eissler with the FIL Fair Play Award for his unique gesture of fairness during the 2021/2022 Olympic season.

The 27-year-old from Chemnitz lent his sled to luge athletes from other nations for the Olympic qualification for Beijing 2022, as did his 22-year-old colleague Ionut Șișcanu, who will be presented with the award at a later date.

The help with the material became important due to an extraordinary situation: after the opening of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup on the Chinese Olympic track of Yanqing, the international troop of lugers traveled from China to Russia. In the process, some sleds and material boxes were detained by customs in China. For the following three World Cups, the teams and athletes of many teams had to do without some of their material or borrow sleds and equipment. 

Only thanks to the sportive behavior of some lugers like especially Șișcanu and Eissler some athletes had the chance to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022.