The traditional winter sport resort Kitzbühel in Austria hosted a press conference which the International Luge Federation (FIL) had called in. One of the highlights was when FIL President Josef Fendt and representatives of GERMANPIPE, a Germany home based company, signed a contract for the upcoming World Cup season. “We are very proud that after a two year´s gap we now have a title sponsor for the World Cup again”, said Fendt. He also said that the FIL is on a very good way, at the IOC congress in Guatemala luge was given the status of one of the core sports in the programme of Olympic Winter games. “The FIL has 50 member nations now, they are spread over four continents and we are working hard to add the fifth continent. So far we do not have any members in Africa, but there are some positive tendencies in South Africa.”

All the organizers are ready for the coming season. The track in Passeier (ITA) is already open for training, even though the local Chief of Track is very careful that not too many runs are held on the track, so that it will be in perfect condition for the season opening on December 21st, said Luis Pichler from the Passeier organizing committee.
After Italy the GERMANPIPE World Cup will move to Austria with two races in Umhausen and Hüttau. One race in Poland, in the famous recreational area Krynica, will follow and finally the last two races of the season will be held in Moscow in Russia.
In the press conference also some of the top athletes talked about the new season. Good news came from Austria´s double seaters Gerhard Mühlbacher and Christian Schatz. Their injuries, suffered in their bronze medal race in last year´s World Championships, had turned out more serious than originally thought. But now they are fully fit again and could start their training in summer already.

Last year´s top athlete Patrik Pigneter (ITA) said that he will have a hard time if he wants to be better than last year. “A season like my last will be very hard to repeat, but in our first internal competition runs I performed very well again.” Reigning World Champion Gernot Schwab (AUT) will definitely try to give Pigneter a hard time.

In the women´s competition it will be once again a matter of being able to beat Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS). With her winning streaks of the past seasons she has dominated the scene in three consecutive winters. The Italian team is once again determined to beat her, but also Austria´s Junior World Champion Melanie Batkowski is more than ready for her first World Cup win.