Madeleine Egle wins at Season's Final - Julia Taubitz wins Overall World Cup

Winterberg (FIL, 25.02.2023) At the double triumph of the Austrian women today in the VELTINS EisArena Winterberg Madeleine Egle celebrated her third season's victory in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup and won in 1:52,843 ahead of her teammate Lisa Schulte (+0,224 sec.), who already won yesterdays Nations Cup. World Champion Anna Berreiter went from sixth to third place, 0.245 seconds behind. With a gap of 0.305 seconds Emily Sweeney (USA) finished fourth, closely followed by Julia Taubitz (+0.348 sec.) and Dajana Eitberger (+0.546 sec.).

Julia Taubitz successfully defended her overall World Cup title with 947 points. The 26-year-old Vice World Champion had started the race with a lead of 90 points and only had to finish. That is often easier said than done. The Saxon, who trains at the Olympic base in Oberhof, thus takes home all three crystal globes. She has won the overall rankings in the Sprint World Cup, the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup and the overall World Cup. In the individual event she was only twice not on the podium in nine decisions and took two victories.

In the individual and overall World Cup, the German women decided the podium among themselves. The EBERSPAECHER World Cup was won by Julia Taubitz with 677 points ahead of Dajana Eitberger (661 points) and Anna Berreiter (640 points). The same constellation also decided the overall World Cup: Julia Taubitz won with 947 points ahead of Dajana Eitberger (852 points) and Anna Berreiter (789 points).

The World Cup final was also a very special one for German luger Dajana Eitberger: The 32-year-old sports soldier from Thuringia had already announced at the start of the season that it would be her last season in the singles and that she would switch to the women's doubles on her way to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. She will share the sled with 19-year-old Saskia Schirmer from Berchtesgaden. Competing for the German national team in the World Cup since 2013, Olympic silver in PyeongChang 2018 as well as two World Cup bronze medals in the singles are among the biggest successes of her career so far. The reigning sprint world champion has also placed second three times and third once in the overall World Cup.

Quotes:

Julia Taubitz (GER): "I would have liked to win a medal today and finish the season with a victory, but I was really nervous today and I am happy that it worked out. You can hardly believe it, but this sentence 'You just have to get to the finish line' creates a certain pressure. I wanted to show two great runs again, which I didn't quite manage, but anyway, I have won all three bullets now for the first time in my career and I am incredibly happy about it."

Madeleine Egle (AUT): "When I started the second run, I knew it was a good start and that I could win today. I just felt it. Winterberg is a gliding track, just like Igls, and to finish the season with a victory like I did at the start is really great. However, it was even nicer for me to stand on the podium together with Lisa today. For her it was only the second podium of her career. To share this success is just great."

Anna Berreiter (GER): "The first run was nothing today, after the second number one is shown again. It is annoying, like already in the first World Cup here at Winterberg. However, third place after catching up is top."

Dajana Eitberger (GER): " It was wild for me today, as usual. Winterberg always holds surprises. In the first run I was mad at everything that happened here today. Weather conditions, bad preparation, my bad start. In the second run I went on full attack because I didn't want to say goodbye like that. I know that I have shown a lot of people this season that I belong to the world's best and I can well imagine that I will be missed. But I'm not gone, I'll start in the doubles and I'm looking forward to the new challenges."

The results of the 9th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup of the 2022/23 season are available at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-18

The final results in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup as well as in the overall ranking can be found here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/gesamtstaende?event_season_id=30