Loch dominates hunt for crystal balls, Repilov defends World Championship  title, Gleischer sprint World Champion

Berchtesgaden (FIL) The 43rd FIL Men's World Cup season was dominated by three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch. The 6-time World Champion from Germany won nine of twelve World Cup races. Only in one race, the BMW Sprint World Cup in Winterberg, the 31-year-old Bavarian did not stand on the podium. In the sprint in Innsbruck he only had to admit defeat to the Russian former World Champion Semen Pavlichenko and the South Tyrolean Kevin Fischnaller. 

In a strong Men’s single World Cup final in the traditional Swiss winter sports resort of Sankt Moritz, Sprint World Champion Nico Gleirscher (AUT) ended dominator Felix Loch's winning streak in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup with his first World Cup success. But in the overall ranking Loch was unstoppable and took the title as overall World Cup winner for the seventh time. Italy's Armin Zoeggeler and Austria's Markus Prock continue to lead the standings with ten overall victories each.

German luge athletes stood on the World Cup podium a total of 19 times in the Corona winter 2020/21. In the medal table of the World Cup season, Austria follows with seven podium places ahead of Italy. The two South Tyrolean cousins Dominik and Kevin Fischnaller won six medals. Three precious metals in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup went to Russia, one of which was won by Semen Pavlichenko. Latvia's Kristers Aparjods started the season very strongly and raced on the podium at the third EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in Altenberg, Saxony. Unfortunately, the ex-junior world champion had to end the season prematurely after a training crash the following week in Oberhof. After his comeback in the Olympic season, Aparjods will definitely be a force to be reckoned with among the world's best. 

With 48 individual victories in the World Cup, Felix Loch is in second place in terms of individual successes, behind Armin Zoeggeler who stood at the top of the podium 57 times and ended his career in 2014. Behind Loch, Markus Prock (AUT) and Georg Hackl (GER) are in third place in terms of individual World Cup victories. Both have won 33 times.

Repilov defends World Championship title

At his home World Championships, the 50th FIL World’s in Koenigssee, Bavaria, the dominator of the winter, Felix Loch, was left behind. The 25-year-old Roman Repilov from Russia defended his World Championship title from the year before, where he won the World Championship title in the singles and in the sprint at home in Sochi. With the two World Championship titles in singles, Repilov from Dimitrov, moved up to third place in the World Championship standings. Armin Zoeggeler continues to lead with six World Championship titles, three silver and one bronze medal at World Championships. Felix Loch is close behind in second place. The German is only one bronze medal short of the world's best luger Zöggeler from Italy.