Olympic doubles preview: Medals for Eggert/Benecken, Sics/Sics and Steu/Koller - or gold for the third time in a row for Wendl/Arlt

Beijing (FIL) Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken left no stone unturned at the final of the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz. The German doubles set the best time in both runs on the only natural ice track in the World Cup. With their fifth victory of the season, the duo from Germany secured the victory in the overall World Cup. It is the sixth big crystal globe for the eight-time World champions. The two bronze medallists from PyeongChang 2018 are thus sledding into a favourite role for Beijing 2022.

The brothers Andris and Juris Sics, who secured the small crystal globe for the Sprint World Cup and had travelled to Switzerland for the final as leaders in the overall standings, only finished fifth in the last World Cup race. Thus, they had to narrowly surrender the overall World Cup to their German opponents Eggert/Benecken on the home stretch. "On 9 February it really counts. The Olympic competition is our first priority, that's what we've been working towards all season," said Andris Sics after the World Cup final in Switzerland. The likeable Latvians already have two Olympic medals, in silver and bronze. Only the gold is still missing.

At the Olympic premiere, the World Cup opener at the Yanqing Sliding Center in November, Eggert/Benecken won ahead of Austria's 2021 overall World Cup winners Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller. Sics/Sics came third. So the doubles from Germany, Austria and Latvia will primarily fight for Olympic precious metal.
The Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt had only finished ninth at the premiere in China. They had not been allowed to train in the two days before the World Cup because a corona test showed a positive result for Arlt. In the following two days, the tests were negative again. They lacked the usual confidence in their runs. Therefore, the Olympic champions lost too much momentum on the demanding track after making mistakes in both runs. The start of the season was bumpy for the Olympic champions, but in the new year Wendl/Arlt were back on the podium in all five World Cups. In Winterberg they even won the 46th World Cup of their career.

With their first World Cup victory on their home track in Sochi and a second place one week before, Andrei Bogdanov and Iurii Prokhorov as well as the young Latvians Martins Bots / Roberts Plume and the Italians Emanuel Rieder / Simon Kainzwaldner, each with two third places, could also join the list of favourites.