Berchtesgaden (RWH) Tatjana Hüfner was first in the overall Viessmann World Cup rankings five times in succession starting in the winter of 2007-2008, but in the last two years Natalie Geisenberger has collected the crystal globe. And the ongoing duel between the two German athletes looks set to dominate the scene in the post-Olympic winter. Tatjana Hüfner, who completed her set of Olympic medals (bronze in 2006 and gold in 2010) with silver in Sochi, has won a total of 33 World Cups to date, and is now poised to overtake record winners Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (37 victories) and Sylke Otto (36 victories), who have both long since retired. Olympic Champion Geisenberger, who also collected bronze at Vancouver 2010, has notched up 23 victories to date, a remarkable 14 of them in the last two winters. The 26-year-old suffered only one defeat in the Olympic season. It was in Oberhof and, of course, it was Tatjana Hüfner who beat her. “I know I’ve become accustomed to success over the last two years,” said Natalie Geisenberger, who won World Championship gold for the first time in Whistler in 2013. “And I hope that I’ll be competing to win again this year, too. Both in the individual World Cups, the overall World Cup, and, of course, the season highlight, the World Championships in Sigulda, Latvia”. But Geisenberger is reluctant to reduce the competition to a continuation of her duel with Hüfner. “I’m sure several other girls will be up there at the front,” she said, and listed both her German teammates and a whole handful of competitors, including US luger Erin Hamlin. Associated Press (AP) described Hamlin’s bronze medal at the Winter Olympics as “a feat that will surely go down as perhaps the greatest moment in USA luge history.” The 2009 World Champion was also recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as Best US Female Olympian of the Winter Games in a fan poll. Erin Hamlin, who celebrates her 29th birthday just 10 days before the opening Viessmann World Cup in Innsbruck-Igls (AUT, 29–30 November), goes into the post-Olympic season with a victory at the Lillehammer Cup in October, a competition which traditionally draws top athletes. Her teammate Kate Hansen, 2008 Junior World Champion and the winner of the final round in the women’s Viessmann Luge World Cup in Sigulda (LAT) in 2013-2014, is currently taking a year off to concentrate on her studies. Top places in the forthcoming races could also go to Alex Gough of Canada, who just missed winning Canada its first ever Olympic medal in luge with a fourth both in the women’s singles and the team relay, and to two-time European Champion Tatiana Ivanova and 2014 European Champion Natalia Khoreva, both of Russia, who were bitterly disappointed to come only seventh and eighth, respectively, at Sochi.