Huefner’s 25th win – Zoeggeler’s 50th success – 100th victory of Germany’s women
Park City (pps) The holiday season in the post Olympic winter of the Viessmann Luge World Cup turned out to be a season of anniversaries. The recently renovated track in Winterberg (expenditures of about 2.5 million Euro) even saw two of those unique successes. First the two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy celebrated his 50th individual victory in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, exactly four weeks prior to his 37th birthday on January 4, 2011.
“The old man is simply too fast“, expressed Olympic silver medallist David Moeller of Germany his respect for the five-time World champion who does not yet waste a thought on ending his career and even thinks about competing at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Moeller finished second behind Zoeggeler at the World Cup in Winterberg. In Calgary and Park City Zoeggeler then celebrated victories number 51 and 52. After the four Viessmann Luge World Cup stops in Innsbruck-Igls (AUT), Winterberg (GER), Calgary (CAN) and Park City (USA), Zoeggeler is leading the overall rankings by a large margin.
Then, on December 5 – just one day after Zoeggeler’s victory – Germany’s women had reason to be happy, too. Olympic champion Tatjana Huefner had the honor to earn the 100th consecutive victory for Germany’s women lugers in the Viessmann Luge World Cup. “This is something very special”, the two-time World champion admitted after this historical feat. “I’ve tried not to think about it before the race. But of course there are also others who have contributed to the hundred victories.”
The longest international winning series started on December 6, 1997 in Innsbruck-Igls with the first World Cup success for Barbara Niedernhuber. The two-time Olympic silver medallist then added another four victories to the series. Silke Kraushaar-Pielach contributed the lion’s share of 33 wins, followed by Sylke Otto with 29 victories. “Every winning series will come to an end one day. But we’ll all give it our best shot that this day is not coming too soon”, announced Tatjana Huefner, who contributed her 23rd individual victory at the World Cup in Winterberg.
Also involved in writing this small chapter of luge history were the current Olympic bronze medallist Natalie Geisenberger (6 wins) and Sonja Wiedemann (3), the 1999 World champion. Anke Wischnewski contributed one victory.
But this was not the end of the holiday season for Tatjana Huefner – in Calgary and Park City she earned her victories number 24 and 25 and thus she is getting closer and closer to Sylke Otto, record winner with a total of 37 individual victories. But Huefner does not lose sleep over calculations as to when she might displace her former team-mate on the rankings. “Statistics mean nothing to me. I can’t seriously start thinking about my 37th victory, right ? I’m just taking it step by step, from week to week.”
