Italy's national luge team prepares for pre-Olympic season

Innsbruck (FIL/06 Aug 2024) The Italian national luge team is currently preparing for the new season in Innsbruck.

After five days of athletics training in Latsch in the first week of August, the Italian national team with coaches Armin Zöggeler, Klaus Kofler and Matthias Schnitzer will be in Innsbruck from Monday, August 5 and Wednesday, August 7 for the start training.

The World Cup group is almost complete with Emanuel Rieder, Dominik Fischnaller, Simon Kainzwaldner, Lukas Peccei, Fabian Malleier, Ivan Nagler, Alex Gufler, Sandra Robatscher, Andrea Voetter, Verena Hofer and Marion Oberhofer.

“We are in Innsbruck for start training to refine our start technique. Next week we will have a week of start training in Meransen with a final international start competition on Saturday, August 24th,” said Italy's new head coach Klaus Kofler.

The junior and youth team will be moving to Germany instead, as Philipp Brunner, Leon Halselrieder, Manuel Weissensteiner, Samuel Mayrhofer, Nadia Falkensteiner, Annalena Huber, Katharina Sofie Kofler, Alexandra Oberstolz, Tamara Oberstolz, Mirjam Stampfl and Johanna Unterkircher, accompanied by coaches Kurt Brugger and Christian Oberstolz, will be training on the summer luge track in Zwickau from Monday, August 5 to Friday, August 9.

Klaus Kofler is planning further training camps until the World Cup opener on November 30th in Norway: “We will start the ice season in Lillehammer (NOR) at the beginning of October, followed by two training courses in Sigulda and Altenberg. After that, we'll be ready for the start of the World Cup and are already looking forward to it,” said the new Italian head coach Kofler.

Training camp in July in Passo Tre Croci and Meransen

The entire national team group met in July 2024 for a training camp in Ampezzo and at Passo Tre Croci for summer training. Under the guidance of coach Klaus Kofler, the 13 female and male athletes prepared themselves athletically for the 2024/2025 pre-Olympic season.

This was preceded by a block of joint athletics training for the national team and junior athletes in the South Tyrolean spa town of Meransen.