Preview 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup 2020/21 in Berchtesgaden-Königssee (GER) - The world's luge elite starts into the new year

Berchtesgaden (FIL) 22 nations (ARG, AUT, BIH, BUL, CAN, CZE, GBR, GER, ITA, KOR, LAT, MDA, NED, POL, ROU, RUS, SUI, SVK, SWE, TPE, UKR, USA) with 135 athletes have registered their participation for the first EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of 2021, from January 1-3rd in Berchtesgaden-Königssee (GER). There will be 44 men, 41 women and 25 doubles at the start.
For the first time this season, North American teams from the USA and Canada will be taking part. While Team USA will compete in the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup at Königssee in Bavaria with four women, three men and two doubles, Team Canada will enter the World Cup in a smaller line-up, with one woman, one man and one double.
After six of twelve World Cup races, Natalie Geisenberger and Felix Loch (both Germany) as well as the Austrian duo Thomas Steu / Lorenz Koller (doubles) lead the World Cup standings.
At the halfway point in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup, after six of twelve races and isolation in the World Cup bubble, some teams could go into a six-day Christmas break. Other teams, such as Russia, Korea and also the athletes of the international FIL group stayed in their bubble and spent the Christmas days in Berchtesgaden due to the ongoing pandemic and various travel restrictions. All teams must return to the isolation of the World Cup bubble via two Corona tests (one national and one international test) by Tuesday, 29th December 2020. 

From Wednesday, 30 December 2020, the official training runs will start in the Lotto Bayern Eisarena at Königssee for the weekend's World Cup races in Berchtesgadener Land. On Friday, 1st January 2021, the World Cup qualifying races in the FIL Nations Cup will start at 10am.

Large and small crystal globe in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup

The large crystal globe is awarded by the international luge federation FIL for victory in the EBERSPÄCHER overall World Cup ranking of all twelve races. Six races already took place in 2020. In January and February 2021, the other six World Cup races will take place. Five classic World Cups and one BMW Sprint World Cup are still to be held. The big crystal globe will be won in the disciplines women's singles, men's singles and doubles by whoever achieves the most World Cup points from the classic EBERSPÄCHER World Cup (9 races) and the BMW Sprint World Cup (3 races).
New in the coming 2020/21 season is the small crystal globe for each of the overall discipline winners of the classic EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup (9 competitions) and the BMW Sprint World Cup (3 competitions). While in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup there are 100 points for victory, 85 for second place and 70 World Cup points for third place in an individual race, in the BMW Sprint World Cup the times of the individual sprint races are added together. The winner of the small crystal globe of the BMW Sprint is the one with the fastest overall time, adding up all three sprint races.
The current overall World Cup standings are available at the following link:
https://www.fil-luge.org/de/gesamtstaende?event_season_id=28 

Quotes before the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Königssee:

René Friedl, Head Coach and Sports Director, Austria: “We can look back on a successful half of the season: Thirteen podium places, including three gold, seven silver and three bronze and almost fifty top 10 finishes. Our doubles Steu/Koller and Müller/Frauscher are always good for a podium place. Our men's quintet is a team bulwark that we can usually rely on. Four podium places, seven top-5 and eighteen top-10 results speak for themselves. For the second half of the season we can expect even more, judging by their potential. The ladies are also giving us great pleasure. First and foremost Madeleine Egle, who has always finished in the top-5 except for the sprint competitions and seems to have claimed fourth place for herself for the last three races. But we can all assume that she will manage the last hundredths of a second on the podium in one of the next races”.

Thomas Steu, World Cup leader doubles: “The short break over Christmas did us good. Now we will attack again at Königssee and want to make the second half of the season exciting as well and in Königssee we really like to race. The view is beautiful, the track has everything a track has to have. We like technically demanding courses.”

Sergey Chudinov, head coach Russian Luge Federation: “Our team is healthy and ready for the new year’s World Cups. This is the most important thing for us. Whilst preparing in Königssee, we had a few days towards the end with poor ice conditions. I don’t know why. It is very important in our preparation to keep the spirit in a high level and respect your guests as much as the home team. Now we wait for very interesting races in Königssee, because it is the World Championships track. World Cup will be the premiere for the World Championships three weeks later. In Russia we have a saying: “How you meet the new year so you will spend all year!“ So let’s start successful and healthy. The best athletes may win! I wish everyone good health and good luck for the new year!“

Chris Mazdzer, 2018 Olympic Silver Medalist, Team USA: "2020 was a crazy year and I'm looking forward to getting back into race mode. Koenigssee is the World Championships' track in 2021, so the first World Cup there this year is of special importance."

Norbert Loch, head coach Germany: "The World Cup in Koenigssee can already be called the World Championships premiere in 2021. In any case, it has a special significance, especially for the other nations, as a preparation for the 50th FIL World Championships at Königssee at the end of January. This way, everyone can train again on the World Championships track. 
We will make a change in the doubles for the Königssee World Cup. Orlamünder/Gubitz will not start, instead Geueke/Gamm will be nominated. Otherwise, our team from the last World Cup in Winterberg will remain. For the World Championship nomination we would like to take our time and wait for the further results. Three men, three women and two doubles seem to be fairly certain. The last World Cup starting place in each discipline is still completely open and will only be nominated at short notice".

Natalie Geisenberger, World Cup leader women: "Christmas was very nice and totally relaxed. Sleeping in my own bed for a few days was very pleasant. On December 27th we went sledding again. Normally, a home World Cup is always something very special, especially because of the many people on site, family, friends, fans... Of course, that's not possible this year, but I'm still looking forward to the World Cup here at Königssee. Whether I start in the yellow bib of the World Cup leader or not is not important for me at the moment. What matters is who will be at the top at the end of the season. And until then there are still 600 World Cup points to be awarded. Therefore, nothing has been decided yet."

Schedule 5th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in Königssee (GER):

Friday, January 1st , 2021
10:00 Nations Cup, Award Ceremony
14:30 Training seeding-group

Saturday, January 2nd, 2021
10.30 Uhr / h 1st run Doubles
11.50 Uhr / h 2nd run Doubles
13.40 Uhr / h 1st run Men
15.20 Uhr / h 2nd run Men

Sunday, January 3rd, 2021
09.20 Uhr / h 1st run Women
10.45 Uhr / h 2nd run Women
12.40 Uhr / h Team Relay World Cup
Official web-site:  www.eisarena-königssee.de 

Subject to change