Max Langenhan defends title – Loch with silver most successful luger at World Championships
Whistler (FIL/08 Feb 2025) Max Langenhan knows his colleagues well. In the run-up to the FIL Luge World Championships in Whistler, the German luger had named his compatriot Felix Loch and the Austrians Jonas Müller and Nico Gleirscher as his strongest competitors in the fight for the men's title. He based his assessment on the respective starting times. And Langenhan was right, because it was precisely this quartet that fought for the podium places. With the best end for Langenhan, who was able to defend his title with a total time of 1:39.922 minutes. “This is an absolute dream day,” enthused the 25-year-old, “it could only have been better with skiing at the end. But standing at the top of the podium with Felix is awesome.”
Loch came in second, 0.135 seconds behind. With this silver medal, the 35-year-old has become the most successful luger in World Championships. In the individual races, the three-time Olympic Champion has won six gold, four silver and one bronze medal. So far, he shared this unofficial title with Armin Zöggeler (Italy). “The result is perfect,” said Loch, "Max is a deserving World Champion and I am very satisfied with second place." Winner Langenhan also thought of the team behind the athletes at the moment of success: ”It's great that we can give something back with this result, to the coaches, doctors and physios who have put so much into the season.”
Nico Gleirscher (0.222 seconds back) took third place on the podium alongside the two Germans. And he was satisfied with his performance. “Bronze was missing from my collection,” said the Austrian, “I won gold in the sprint at Königssee in 2021 and silver in the individual at Altenberg last year.” With a little distance, Dominik Fischnaller (Italy/0.420) took fourth place ahead of Jonas Müller (0.528) and Kristers Aparjods (Latvia/0.576). Behind them, his compatriot Gints Berzins came in seventh (0.581). This meant that he was the U23 World Champion for the third time in a row.
