Luge athletes ahead of season start in Innsbruck, then World Cup returns to North America
Berchtesgaden (FIL/17.11.2022) Lugers worldwide are looking forward to the 45th FIL World Cup season in 2022/2023. After three years, the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup will finally return to North America. Luge World Cups were last held in Whistler (CAN) and Lake Placid (USA) in December 2019. After that, travel and entry restrictions and health requirements during the Covid 19 pandemic caused overseas races to be relocated to Europe. The 2002 Olympic track near Salt Lake City even last saw a luge World Cup in 2016. Lake Placid usually won the bid to host World Cup races in the United States. Junior World Cups and continental competitions have been held at the Utah track in recent years. Now the FIL World Cup is coming back to Park City after six years.
Nine stops of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in seven countries and on two continents are on the FIL artificial track calendar in the coming season. In addition, three Sprint World Cups will also be held in the three months from December to February, in Innsbruck on Dec. 4, Park City Dec. 17, and Winterberg Feb. 12, 2023. And there are six EBERSPÄCHER Team Relay World Cups presented by BMW coming up (Whistler, Sigulda, Lillehammer, Altenberg, St. Moritz and finals in Winterberg).
Continental Championships, as in every FIL sports year, will be run in race-in-race mode with the World Cups. Thus, the 12th America-Pacific Championships on December 16 and 17 in Park City, USA, and the 54th FIL European Championships on January 14 and 15, 2023, in Lillehammer, Norway, are on the schedule.
The season highlight will be the 51st FIL World Championships in Oberhof at the end of January.
FIL season calendar 2022/2023:
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup INNSBRUCK (AUT), 02. - 04. DECEMBER
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup WHISTLER (CAN), 09. - 11. DECEMBER
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup PARK CITY (USA), 15. - 17. DECEMBER
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup SIGULDA (LAT), 06 - 08 JANUARY
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup & 54th FIL EM LILLEHAMMER (NOR), 13 - 15 Jan.
51st World Championships 2023 OBERHOF (GER), 27 - 29 JANUARY
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup ALTENBERG (GER), 03 - 05 FEBRUARY
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup WINTERBERG (GER), 10 - 12 FEBRUARY
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup ST. MORITZ (SUI), 17 - 19 FEBRUARY
EBERSPÄCHER World Cup WINTERBERG (GER), 24 - 26 FEBRUARY 2023
Women and men equally entitled
The quotas for the participation of women and men in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup are equal for the first time in the 2022/23 season. 30 men and 30 women each (12 seeded, 18 qualified via the Nations Cup) are eligible to compete. In addition, 24 men's and women's doubles (12 seeded, 12 qualified via the Nations Cup) are eligible to compete in the World Cups. A maximum of four singles and three doubles per nation can start.
The starters in the Sprint World Cup qualify at the current World Cup race of the weekend. Those who finish among the first 15 athletes in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup will also be eligible to start in the sprint on Sunday.
Cards will be reshuffled after Beijing 2022 - Loch facing 50th World Cup victory, Kindl favorite for the crystal globe
After the retirement of Johannes Ludwig of Germany, who dominated last season as overall World Cup and Olympic champion, the cards will be reshuffled in the men's singles. Three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch, from Germany, already has 49 World Cup victories to his credit and wants to celebrate his 50th victory and anniversary as quickly as possible in the new season. Wolfgang Kindl, the silver medalist from Beijing 2022 and second in the overall World Cup will lead a strong Austrian men's team into the season, with World Cup opener at home in Innsbruck. "I am in good shape and ready for the upcoming season. My primary goal will be the overall World Cup. I've been close to victory so many times now and I'm still missing it." The red-white-red team of the Alpine Republic has upgraded with Christian Eigentler as new head coach, new material developers like luge legend Georg Hackl from Germany and established Olympic medalist Peter Penz, a successful and experienced junior coach like Renè Friedl, with professional coaching team and strong partners. "In the medium term, we want to pass the luge superpower Germany and become the number one in the ice track. This requires a lot of heart and passion as well as new impulses," says ÖRV President Markus Prock, who himself has won the overall World Cup in artificial track luge ten times.
But also the German men, with Felix Loch as the dominator of the pre-Olympic season at the top, the Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller and his cousin Kevin from Italy as well as the overall World Cup bronze medalist Kristers Aparjods are among the favorites. The Latvian won his first two World Cup races in the Olympic winter and thus made history as Latvia's first luger with a World Cup victory. The men's competitions will be exciting on all tracks. In the last Olympic winter there were already five different World Cup winners from four countries. Three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch is looking forward to the season with confidence: "The preparation for the season in summer went very well. I was able to train well athletically and am lighter than ever. We will only see where we stand at the World Cups. I am really looking forward to the season and am very happy to be able to race in Whistler and Salt Lake City again after two years. I'm really looking forward to Park City because it's gone this way and that way for me there before. It will definitely be very interesting."
New round in World Cup duel Taubitz vs. Egle
World champion Julia Taubitz could win four of twelve and her friend and opponent Madeleine Egle even five EBRSPÄCHER World Cups in the Olympic winter 2022. The 26-year-old German overall World Cup winner or last season's 24-year-old high-flyer from Austria, who will follow in Natalie Geisenberger's footsteps as a serial winner? The six-time Olympic champion from Germany was able to win a total of 52 luge World Cups, secured the Great JOSKA Crystal Globe of the overall World Cup eight times and will give birth to her second child next winter and will therefore not be at the start. "In the preparation I haven't got going so well yet. I'm really looking forward to the World Cups now. It will be exciting. The Austrian girls have all been very strong recently, but the Italians are also making progress, and you should never underestimate the Latvians and the USA lugers anyway," said World champion Julia Taubitz of Germany.
Surprise silver medalist Anna Berreiter, her teammate Dajana Eitberger with seven World Cup victories and the Austrians Lisa Schulte and Hannah Prock should also be on the bill for winter one after Beijing 2022. After the retirement of Eliza Tiruma, the two-time Olympic medalist in the team relay for Latvia, Kendija Aparjode and Elina Ieva Vitola want to follow in her footsteps. Aparjode had to struggle with a broken foot last Olympic winter, but has already been on the World Cup podium three times and is showing an upward trend. The young Latvian Vitola, who has already celebrated one World Cup victory in her career, is also confident: "The training sessions this summer went well. This year the coaches had an interesting training plan. There was something completely new that was not in the training process before. I am definitely mentally ready for the new season. Physically, the training is still going on and I'm getting stronger every day."
Women's doubles for the first time in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup
21 duos from ten nations competed in the Women's Doubles World Cup in the winter of 2021/2022. Due to the Olympic qualification via the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup and the then not yet Olympic discipline of the women's doubles, the World Cup series started with the junior women. The women from Germany, USA and Latvia dominated the races. The world championship title was secured by Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal from Germany. Their teammates Luisa Romanenko and Pauline Patz made history as the first overall World Cup winners in women's doubles with one victory and three podium finishes. Third in the World Cup in Winterberg were the Americans Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby ahead of their teammates Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler. Overall World Cup bronze medalists Viktorija Ziedina and Selina Zvilna of Latvia finished fifth at the World Championships.
"We have been training with the then young girls on the double sled for seven years now. Luisa Romanenko and Pauline Patz were there from the beginning. It is a great pity that the two of them now cannot start in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup for the time being after a training fall and complicated leg fracture of Luisa", said national base coach Jan Eichhorn from Oberhof. Andrea Vötter from South Tyrol is happy about another medal chance for the women: "Marion Oberhofer and I will also compete in doubles for the first time this winter. We are currently getting to know all the tracks in doubles. For me it was important to race both disciplines this season, because in doubles you don't know yet how well it works. We don't know if Marion and I fit together, if we understand each other and if the results fit.
Of course it is something different than singles but certainly also exciting. You are no longer alone on the sled and can exchange ideas better. However, you have to harmonize very well on the luge and mutual trust is important."
German permanent duel extended - Austria and Latvia reach for medals
Gone seem the times when either Eggert/Benecken or Wendl/Arlt won. There were five different World Cup winners from four nations in the men's doubles in the 2022 Olympic winter. The future six-time Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt from Bavaria could only win one World Cup race. Overall World Cup winners for the sixth time were their teammates Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken. At the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, the Tyroleans Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller finished in bronze place, right behind the Thuringia Express. Thomas Steu from Vorarlberg, who was plagued by serious injuries in the last two winters, and his Tyrolean doubles partner Lorenz Koller have to be considered as big favorites in the post-Olympic winter. With the regulation change of the deeper and wider doubles sleds in the men's event, the upcoming first season with standardized sled components promises a first approach in the material towards standardized sleds for all.
"We are getting along well with the new material. The sled is more stable and safer now. Everyone is currently testing their stuff, there is a lot of experimentation, especially with the rails, so comparisons are difficult. Schorsch (Hackl) is providing new directions with his experience and ideas when it comes to tuning. He has very interesting additions, complements super with Peter (Penz) and fits the team perfectly in terms of type," said bronze medalist Thomas Steu before the season opener.
Sprint World Cup winners Andris and Juris Sics and overall runners-up in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup resigned after Beijing 2022. Andris Sics will remain with the FIL as Technical Director and will be able to contribute his years of expertise. Latvia has strong young talent with the young team of Martins Bots and Roberts Plume. The duo had already overtaken the old masters in Beijing and won an Olympic bronze medal with the Latvian team. There are many successes to look forward to in the coming years.
Germany, Austria or Latvia - who has the fastest team relay?
Actually, there is only one favorite: Germany! Since the 2010/2011 season, a total of 71 Team Relay World Cups have been held in twelve winters. Of these, the German relay team has won 43 times and secured a total of eleven season victories. Only Italy and Russia tied for the big JOSKA crystal globe for overall victory in the 2019/2020 season.
Twelve individual victories went to Russia's account, seven were claimed by Italy, who in addition to the one victory were also on the podium twice in the overall standings. Austria and Latvia were both victorious three times each in a Team Relay, Canada twice and the USA team is in the history books with one Team Relay victory and two bronze medals in the overall standings.
