Natalie Geisenberger, Kindl and Steu/Koller lead World Cup rankings

Lake Placid (RWH) Germany now has another race-winning athlete in its women’s team, Wolfgang Kindl of Austria is in peak condition, his team mates Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller are making waves in the doubles event, and Team USA are attracting attention after finishing second in the team relay. These are the main headlines from the Viessmann World Cup ahead of the fourth stop in the series next weekend (15/16 December 2018), when the tour will head to Lake Placid in the US-state of New York.

The two-time host of the Winter Olympic Games (1932 and 1980) will also provide the backdrop for the second event in the BMW Sprint World Cup. The third sprint event will take place at the season finale in Sochi (Russia) on 24 February 2019. The opening sprint events in Innsbruck-Igls were won by Natalie Geisenberger (GER), Wolfgang Kindl and Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller (all AUT), all of whom are also the current leaders of the overall Viessmann World Cup standings.

In the women’s event, the two-time Olympic Champion Geisenberger is on 385 points, ahead of Taubitz (355) who topped the winner’s podium in Calgary for her first career win. “She has been getting close to snatching the top spot for the past few years now,” says Natalie Geisenberger, describing her team mate and competitor, who is just 22 years of age. “She only just missed out on qualifying for the Olympics last year. And even then, she said: that’s never happening to me again.” Geisenberger says that Julia Taubitz has her sights set on being a major player in the German team.

Germany’s head coach Norbert Loch is almost spoilt for choice when it comes to assigning the four World Cup starting spots for the women’s team: as well as Taubitz and Geisenberger, he also has record-breaking Tatjana Hüfner, Olympic silver medallist Dajana Eitberger and Junior World Champion Jessica Tiebel to choose from.

Austria’s men are in a similar situation to Germany’s women’s team. Lurking behind Wolfgang Kindl and Olympic Champion David Gleirscher are four athletes waiting for their chance to shine. Reinhard Egger finished third in Whistler, Armin Frauscher won silver at the 2017 Under 23s World Championships, Nico Gleirscher only just missed out on a spot on last year’s Olympic team, and up-and-coming star Jonas Müller demonstrated what he was capable of when he finished tenth in Calgary for the best result of his young World Cup career.

Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller have long broken out of the “up-and-coming” status. The Austrian duo, who finished fourth at the Olympics, currently lead the doubles standings with 330 points, beating World Champions Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (325) and Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (286). Discussing the current mood in the doubles camp, Thomas Steu remarked: “We are competitors on the ice but off the track, we are friends.”