Preview 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup St. Moritz (SUI):
Luge elite returns to Olympic Bob Run St. Moritz-Celerina after 9 years
St. Moritz (FIL) The Olympic Bob Run St. Moritz-Celerina will see the ninth and final EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of the 2020/21 season.
The last time a FIL Luge World Cup was held in the Swiss winter sports resort of St. Moritz was nine years ago on the weekend of January 28-29, 2012. Last winter, the 2020 Youth Olympic Games took place in Lausanne and, the luge, bobsleigh, skeleton and speed skating competitions were held in St. Moritz. The year before, the junior and youth luge athletes competed at their junior World Cup on the natural ice track in the Engadine. For the Olympic winter 2021/22, the 53rd FIL Luge European Championships are planned on the Olympic Bob Run.
133 athletes from 21 nations (ARG, AUT, BIH, CZE, GBR, GER, IRL, ITA, KOR, LAT, MDA, NED, POL, ROU, RLF, SUI, SVK, SWE, TPE, UKR, USA) have registered for the World Cup final in luge on the only natural ice track in the World Cup circuit. 44 women, 39 men and 25 doubles will participate.
While three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch from Germany in the men's event and the Austrian duo Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller have already secured the overall victory in the doubles' World Cup series, the decision for the big crystal globe in the women's event remains exciting until the last race.
A German trio is leading the World Cup ranking before the final. Four-time Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger with 965 World Cup points has already built up a good cushion over World champion Julia Taubitz (891 points). Teammate Dajana Eitberger (636 points) follows in third place and has to defend her third place in the overall World Cup in St. Moritz against Austria's Madeleine Egle (626 points).
"I'm really looking forward to it," says Felix Loch, seven-time overall World Cup winner and six-time World champion from Germany. "I used to luge a lot in St. Moritz some years ago and love this track." The reason for the numerous rides on the natural ice in the Upper Engadine is the training community of the German team with the lugers from Switzerland. In the past, training runs and final races with the Swiss athlets took sometimes place at the end of the season. Currently, the Swiss athlete Natalie Maag is integrated in the German team as part of a training group.
Quotes:
Natalie Geisenberger, Olympic champion and World Cup leader 2021 (GER): “The last time I was in St. Moritz that was for the World Cup in 2012. I've already had a look at the track, we arrived on Monday. The start ramp is very flat, Madeleine and Andrea will certainly be strong there. I hope that I will be able to participate to some extent at the top. It's been nine years since I luged in Switzerland. I first had to memorise the sequence of curves again. St. Moritz is a very nice place to end the season and I'm really looking forward to it”.
Tobias Wendl, Olympic Champion and Sprint World Champion in doubles (GER): “St. Moritz is a little treat for us at the end of a difficult season with a great outcome at the World Championships”.
Roman Repilov, World Champion 2020 and 2021: "This was an incredibly hard season for our team. People can't understand what we feel. We are on the road in Europe for more than three months and have no real athletic training here. There is nothing but hotel rooms and an ice track. There are no emotions, hardly any motivation, no distractions - it's important for the psyche, you just have to be able to come home and meet your family in between. Now, fortunately, it's only one week until the season is over. I'm looking forward to coming home.
In St. Moritz, I will luge for the first time ever. My brother Pavel will train me there. He was there for the youth races the last two winters. I helped him the whole first time in the senior team. Now he has to help me in St. Moritz."
Felix Loch, overall World Cup winner and vice World Champion 2021: "To have won every single race is already insane. If that happens again next weekend, then I don't know any more. I was speechless in Innsbruck and really don't know what to say. It's hard to explain to anyone else why it works so well every weekend. If it's enough to win the World Cup again in St. Moritz, that would be awesome!"
Lorenz Koller, overall World Cup winner in doubles with Thomas Steu (AUT): "I think that Austria is proud of us that we won the overall World Cup even before the last race. We were in every newspaper and in the news. That was a super thing for us, especially after Thomas' serious injury last year. We didn't expect to win the overall World Cup right away. Of course we are very happy that it worked out this way and we look forward to the last World Cup race of the season in St. Moritz”.
Thomas Steu, overall World Cup winner in the doubles with Lorenz Koller (AUT): "I think our recipe for success this winter is the hard work in the summer. We worked a lot on the sled with our material coaches. The material is very well adjusted, the psyche is right and above all we really wanted to come back equally strong after the injury. And now we have probably come back even stronger. That's just cool when it works like that".
Schedule 9th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup 2020/21 in St. Moritz (SUI):
Samstag / Saturday, 06.02.2021
08:40 Doppelsitzer / Doubles
10:00 Doppelsitzer / Doubles
11:55 Herren / Men's
13:30 Herren / Men's
Sonntag / Sunday, 07.02.2021
10:05 Damen / Women
11:30 Damen / Women
13:20 Team-Staffel / Team Relay
Subject to change! Times CET.
Further information about the 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz (e.g. TV times, training results, etc.) can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-World Cup-8
Livestream from Nations Cup on Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz
On Friday, 5 February 2021, the Nations Cup Luge is taking place on the Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz - Celerina. Don't miss this spectacular race! Watch it live from 9.00 Uhr CET on our website:
https://www.olympia-bobrun.ch/
Meet up with our famous co-presenter Georg Hackl who has been three times Olympic champion, ten times world champion and seven times European champion in his legendary carreer as a luge athlete.
Due to the current situation no spectators are allowed along the track.
