50th Anniversary with six instead of five competition days
Riga (pps) At the 1964 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, the sport of luge celebrated its première as an Olympic discipline. But long since the fast sport in the ice canal is - by definition of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - one of the key Olympic sports. Right on time for the 50th anniversary celebrations in Sochi (Russia) in 2014, the IOC approved the Team Relay Event of the International Luge Federation (FIL) as an Olympic event.
This is why Olympic medals will now be awarded in four instead of three disciplines on the new artificially refrigerated Sochi track and the program of FIL events has therefore increased from five to six competition days. However, the maximum number of lugers to participate at Olympic Winter Games remains at 110 athletes.
Simultaneously with the “Olympic approval” the FIL is setting the course for the future. At the 60th Congress in Riga, Latvia, it was decided to carry out annual Continental Championships with immediate effect. Furthermore the Congress decided to reduce the members of the Executive Board. As of 2014, the “FIL Cabinet” will then consist of 11 instead of the 16 members previously on the board.
But back to the sport of luge itself: 30 nations are regularly competing in the Viessmann Luge World Cup series, with seven national federations winning at least one medal. In the “junior department” there were 10 nations who were able to achieve a top spot on the podium - a proof that the cost-intensive FIL development program is bearing fruit. With these figures in mind, the idea of 12 nations participating at the Olympic première of the Team Relay Event seems to be no utopia but reality.
“We are a very sound and successful international Olympic federation,” said FIL President Josef Fendt in Riga, and justifiably so. There is nothing left to add.
