Before the RED BULL World Cup finale of Natural Track Luge started in the evening hours, the International Luge Federation (FIL) hold a press conference in Olang, Italy, pointing out some details of the season 2002/03 and having a look ahead to the future of the sport. President Josef Fendt said that the winter was extremely successful for Natural Track Luge: more athletes, more nations participating, less accidents because of more secure tracks, still big media interest nevertheless this sport did not achieve the Olympic status, and good TV-coverage, especially in Austria, Russia and Poland.
“We saw a lot of great competitions, and we saw that our financial support for smaller nations had the results we hoped”, said Fendt. “Our sport is not more only for Austrians and Italians interesting”, added five times World Champion Gerhard Pilz (AUT). “We have great racers from other countries like Poland, Russia, Slovenia.”

Now, the FIL is looking forward to conquer new countries with this sport. In Canada and USA, some tracks were build with the support of the International Federation. “Some day, we want have World Cups again in North America, as it happened in the mid 90ies”, explained sport coordinator Herbert Wurzer. “At the moment, I believe that it is too early. Some very important structures in the organization are still missing.” But the FIL also believes that in future races could be held in East Europe like Czech Republic or in Scandinavia. An exotic country is interested, too, to be part of the Natural Track Luge family: South Corea.

FIL-Media service
Egon Theiner
Contact: +43-664-4152730