Overall World Cup goes to Egle/Kipp and Wendl/Arlt

8th EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz

St. Moritz (FIL/28 Feb 2026) The overall World Cup winners in both the women's and men's doubles team events have already been decided ahead of the final race in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup this coming weekend in Altenberg. In St. Moritz, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (Austria/695 points) were crowned champions, as they were last season, as were Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (636). This is already the seventh overall victory for the two Germans.

However, the race on the natural ice track in St. Moritz did not go according to plan for either doubles team. Egle/Kipp finished their runs through the ice channel in fifth place after a major mistake in the first run. They were 1.002 seconds behind the winners Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (Italy). The Olympic champions carried their momentum from Cortina to their seventh World Cup victory. “Wearing the Olympic champions' jersey is extra motivation for us,” revealed Oberhofer, “and yesterday we found a good balance.”

Second place went to the young German duo Elisa-Marie Storch/Pauline Patz (0.595 seconds behind) ahead of Anda Upite and Madara Pavlova (0.605). The two Latvians had narrowly missed out on Olympic qualification. Their joy was all the greater after their second podium finish this season. “The last four weeks in Latvia were really tough, but here in St. Moritz we managed to put in some good runs – that's very liberating,” said Upite. Fourth place went to Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina (0.985). This was not enough for the Germans to challenge Egle/Kipp for the overall World Cup title. Behind the season's best, the Polish duo Nicola Domowicz/Dominika Piwkowska (1.459) came in sixth.

Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl triumphed in the men's event. The Austrian duo completed the two runs in 1:46.693 minutes. “After coming second at the Olympics, we've now been able to top that with this victory,” said front man Steu. However, they also benefited from mistakes made by their teammates, as they managed to jump to the top of the podium after mistakes by the half-time leaders Gatt/Schöpf with two second-fastest runs. Second place went to Italians Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier. They were only 0.004 seconds behind. With the best time in the second run, they were able to improve their position. “Both runs were good, even if the second one wasn't completely flawless,” said Nagler, “but we can rely on our start.” The 3.014 seconds is a record this season from the new start ramp in Monti's Bolt. “This ramp has turned out very nicely,” said Thomas Steu, “kudos to the track workers.”

For Wendl/Arlt, who had crowned themselves the most successful lugers at the Olympic Games in Cortina with their seventh gold medal, third place, 0.114 seconds behind Steu/Kindl, was enough to win the overall World Cup. Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf followed in fourth place. The Austrians started the second run last after setting the fastest time, but lost a lot of speed and time after a mistake. Their 0.049-second lead turned into a 0.331-second deficit. “We feel sorry for Juri and Riccardo,” said Kindl. “They both deserved to win.”

Germans Toni Eggert and Florian Müller (0.340 seconds behind) managed to overtake Olympic champions Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner (Italy) (0.440) in the second run to secure fifth place.