Penultimate World Cup stop of the Olympic season / Collect points for the starting groups of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games / Premiere new sprint format

Oberhof (FIL) 143 athletes from 25 nations will be at the start at the penultimate stop of the 2021/22 EBERSPÄCHER World Cup and at the BMW Sprint-Testevent from 14 to 16 January 2022 in Oberhof, Thuringia.

There are a good three weeks to go until the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The results of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in Oberhof, together with the World Cup Final one week later in St. Moritz, will count towards determining the seeded group for Beijing 2022.

New sprint format in test

The LOTTO Thüringen EISARENA in Oberhof will experience a premiere on Friday, 14 January 2022. Starting at 2 p.m., a sprint race will be held in a new format for the first time. The athletes will start with a reaction start. The start gate will spring open and the reaction time of the athletes will be measured. The individual reaction time of each athlete is then added to the sprint time of the race. The athlete with the shortest total time wins the Oberhof sprint. For the first time, all registered World Cup participants are allowed to start at this sprint test.

Sprint test on Friday does not count as World Cup

The test competition originally declared as the 4th BMW Sprint World Cup on 14.01. 2022 in Oberhof will not be held as a World Cup race for legal reasons. Due to the given circumstances, no World Cup points can be awarded for the overall World Cup ranking as well as for the overall sprint ranking. The sprint will be held as a pure test competition. However, the FIL will pay out the prize money for this race according to the BMW Sprint World Cup regulations.

World Cup globes for overall winners in the BMW Sprint

After the sprint in Oberhof is no longer included in the World Cup ranking. The small crystal globes for the World Cup winners in the sprint rankings will be awarded as follows: After the three BMW Sprints in Sochi, Innsbruck and Sigulda, sprint World Champion Julia Taubitz (GER), 2017 World Champion Wolfgang Kindl (AUT) and brothers Andris and Juris Sics (LAT) have thus won the 2021/22 BMW Sprint World Cup globes.

Two races left for the big crystal balls of the overall World Cup

World Champion Julia Taubitz from Germany, the Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics as well as local hero Johannes Ludwig travel to Oberhof as overall World Cup leaders from Sigulda (LAT).

The big JOSKA crystal globe is awarded by the International Luge Federation FIL for the victory in the EBERSPÄCHER overall World Cup ranking of all 12 races.

It is awarded in the disciplines women's single, men's single and doubles to the athlete who achieves the most World Cup points from the classic EBERSPÄCHER World Cup (9 races) and the BMW Sprint World Cup (3 races).

In addition, there is a small crystal globe for the overall discipline winners of the classic EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup (9 competitions) and the BMW Sprint World Cup (3 competitions).

World Cup debut in the German team

Making his World Cup debut in the strong German team will be 20-year-old David Nößler, who will be the fifth German to compete in the men's singles on his home track. Also making their debut in this World Cup season are Cheyenne Rosenthal from Winterberg, who will be replacing Dajana Eitberger, and the Thuringian doubles Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz, who will be replacing Robin Geueke/David Gamm from Winterberg.

The current overall World Cup standings are available at the following link: Weltcup Gesamtstände - Rennrodeln (fil-luge.org)

All World Cup races can be followed in the FIL live stream (partly geo-blocked in Germany, Latvia and the USA). The current link to the Olympic Channel will be available from Thursday, 13 January on the FIL website at www.fil-luge.org

Schedule 8th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup 2021/22 in Oberhof and the Sprint Test

(local time CET):

Friday, January 14th, 2022

09.00 am Nations Cup Doubles (14 sleds)
09.45 am Nations Cup Men (33 sleds)
11.10 am Nations Cup Women (30)

BMW Sprint-Test  (NEW: for the first time with reaction start)
14.00 h          Doubles (24)
15:00 h          Men (45)
16.40 h          Women (40)

Saturday, January 15th, 2022
EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup

09.30 h          1st run Men‘s singles
11.05 h          2nd run Men‘s singles

12.45 h          1st run Doubles
14.05 h          2nd run Doubles

Sunday, January 16th, 2022
EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup

10.30 h          1st run Women
11.55 h          2nd run Women

13.50 h EBERSPÄCHER Team relay World Cup presented by BMW

Subject to change