Olympic Champion Natalie Geisenberger secures record victory

Altenberg (RWH): Natalie Geisenberger has broken the record for the total number victories in the Viessmann World Cup. At the season finale in the Saxon town of Altenberg, the Olympic Champion secured her 38th individual victory. As a result, the three-time World Champion has made it to the top of the list of wins, with two-time Olympic Champion Sylke Otto and current World Champion Tatjana Hüfner now sharing second place with 37 wins each.

At the final stop in the last winter series ahead of the Olympics, Natalie Geisenberger, who had already been named as the overall winner of the Viessmann World Cup prior to the race, secured her fifth win of the season. At the race on the challenging artificial ice track, second and third place were awarded to Geisenberger’s team mates Tatjana Hüfner and Dajana Eitberger.

In the first run, the track record was broken a total of four times, with Natalie Geisenberger ultimately setting the new time to beat at 52.185 seconds. During the second heat, Tatjana Hüfner pushed the track record down to 52.175 seconds.

In the overall standings, Tatjana Hüfner finished in second place with 865 points behind Geisenberger (982). Third place went to Russian Tatyana Ivanova with 683 points. With her fifth ever win the overall World Cup, Natalie Geisenberger has managed to match the success of record-breaking winners Silke Kraushaar-Pielach and Tatjana Hüfner, equalling their record of five overall wins each.

Quotes

Natalie Geisenberger (GER / 2014 Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion and three-time European Champion):

“The season didn’t go badly at all. Of course, the World Championships were a bit of a disappointment, but I successfully held onto the overall World Cup and have now won five World Cups.”

Tatjana Hüfner (GER, 2010 Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion):

“I would have liked to have made the World Cup win a little tougher for Natalie. But if you would have told me ahead of the season that I was going to win my fifth World Championship title and finish second in the overall standings, I would not have thought twice about signing up.”

Dajana Eitberger (GER / 2015 European Champion, third place in the 2016 Sprint World Championships):

“Altenberg is not one of my favourite tracks. To finish on the podium here almost brings a tear to my eye.”