Jonas Müller And His Second Attempt
On the way to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina
Berchtesgaden (FIL/26 Jan 2026) Successful luge is not just a question of sliding skills, courage, and equipment. What the pilot believes he can do is also crucial. The slightest doubts can have a major impact. In this respect, Jonas Müller had a decisive experience at the beginning of the Olympic year. After the World Cup race in Sigulda, which the Austrian finished second behind Felix Loch, he said with relief: “I finally managed to complete not just one, but two good runs in the race.”
The 28-year-old has repeatedly shown flashes of his great talent. In 2019, for example, when he became sprint world champion in Winterberg. But that race was also only one run. In the run-up to the Olympic Games Beijing 2022, his lack of consistency proved to be his downfall. Müller only finished fourth in the strong Austrian team. Wolfgang Kindl, who later won the silver medal, and brothers David and Nico Gleirscher were more consistent. And they qualified for the Games. “That was my lowest point so far,” Müller recalls. For a moment, he even thought about ending his career. But he decided to continue. “I had already invested 17 years in the sport and thought it would be a shame to just quit.”
As a result, the 1.87-meter-tall model athlete put even more effort into strength training and became even stronger. “In 2022, I was the one who had to stay at home,” he said about his goals before the start of the season, “This year, I'm going to try to be at the front of the pack.” His intense efforts bore fruit as early as 2023, when he became world champion in the singles in Oberhof. And after that, he also enjoyed success in the World Cup. He has now racked up seven victories.
It was not a foregone conclusion that Jonas Müller and his brother Yannick, who is one year younger and doubles up with Armin Frauscher, would end up in luge. That's because their father Bernd's family is passionate about tennis. Müller Senior even became German champion in the men's 65 team at Tennis Westerbach Eschborn in 2024.
Bernd Müller reaps championship honors in Germany, son Jonas luges for Austria. How does that fit together? Quite simply. Bernd Müller moved to Bludenz with his wife Andrea more than three decades ago and took up a position as an anesthetist at the regional hospital. Their children Alina, Marvin, Jonas, and Yannick were also born there. “There was never really a chance to compete for Germany,” says Jonas Müller, “I was born and raised in Vorarlberg.” And so the Müller family is a German-Austrian one. The parents, sister Alina, and brother Marvin still have German citizenship, while Jonas and Yannick Müller have Austrian passports.
The Müller brothers got into luge through a neighbor, Andrea Tagwerker, who won bronze at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. “Luge is big in Bludenz,” reports Müller, “so I started training.” And he stuck with it. The following year, he raced down the Olympic ice track in Innsbruck-Igls for the first time. The entire Müller family has long since been infected with the luge bug. Bernd and Andrea Müller are involved in their hometown of Bludenz, for example, when it comes to icing the local track at the beginning of winter or being on hand as doctors during races.
The Müller family will definitely be in Cortina d'Ampezzo when the medals are up for grabs. “If you look at my development over the past few years,” says Jonas Müller, "then a medal has to be the clear goal. “Especially since the strong starter (”We train all summer just for the first five seconds.“) has now found the right line after initial difficulties with the new track in Cortina, where Müller misses the pressure curves. ”I was steering too much,“ he says, ”when I was finally able to let the sled run freely, I was fast." And that feeling has stuck in his mind.
