Preview 8th EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup, PyeongChang (KOR):
Mixed Event World Cup Final on the 2018 Olympic track

PyeongChang (FIL/12 Feb 2025) From the World Championships on the Olympic track in Whistler (CAN), the World Cup squad will start their Asian tour, which will take them to the Olympic tracks in PyeongChang 2018 (KOR) and Yanqing 2022 (CHN). This weekend, the world's best lugers will be back in PyeongChang for the first time in seven years. In addition to the World Cup race, the third and final races in the EBERSPAECHER Mixed Event World Cup presented by SKECHERS are on the program from 14 to 16 February 2025. Furthermore, the 10th Asian Championships and the 14th America Pacific Championships will be held in race-in-race mode. 25 women's and 30 men's singles as well as 9 women's and 13 men's doubles from 16 nations have registered.

With Dajana Eitberger, David Gleirscher, Tobias Wendl, Tobias Arlt and Toni Eggert, there are still five lugers in the current World Cup who won an Olympic medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. While the Austrian Gleirscher and the German doubles team of Wendl/Arlt celebrated Olympic gold, Dajana Eitberger won Olympic silver in the Women’s singles and Toni Eggert took Olympic bronze with his doubles partner at the time, Sascha Benecken.

Decision on winning globes in the Mixed Event World Cup

In addition to the crystal globes for winning the EBERSPAECHER Overall World Cup in the individual disciplines (9 competitions), the FIL also awards JOSKA trophies for the EBERSPAECHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW (five competitions) and the overall winners of this season's newly established EBERSPAECHER Mixed Event World Cup presented by SKECHERS (3 competitions). The Mixed Event World Cup will be decided this weekend in PyeongChang.

At the historic World Cup premiere in Whistler (CAN), Julia Taubitz and Max Langenhan won the Mixed Singles for Team GER 1 and Selina Egle/Lara Kipp and Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl won the Mixed Doubles for Team AUT. Now it's all about the final World Cup points on the 2018 Olympic track. A total of 19 mixed singles and 10 mixed doubles have registered for the last Mixed Event World Cup.

The German athletes have been victorious at the previous Mixed World Cup events in Lillehammer (NOR) and Oberhof (GER). In both the mixed singles and mixed doubles, one of their mixed teams stood at the top of the podium. In the mixed singles GER 1 leads with 185 points ahead of GER 2 (170 p.), USA 1 (119 p.), AUT 2 (116 p.), AUT 1 (110 p.) and LAT 1 (101 p.). In the mixed doubles, GER 2 is in the lead with 160 points, followed by GER 1 (146 p.), AUT (127 p.), LAT 1 (120 p.) and USA (112 p.). Two international teams will also be competing in PyeongChang: Switzerland's Natalie Maag and her Australian colleague Alexander Ferlazzo, who finished sixth at the World Championships, are currently in tenth place in the Mixed Singles World Cup, while Elsa Desmond (IRL) and Seiya Kobayasi (JPN) are in 16th place.

Egle, Langenhan, Egle/Kipp and Wendl/Arlt lead the overall World Cup standings

The World Cup races so far this season have shown that very exciting races can be expected in all disciplines in the remaining two World Cups. In previous years, the overall World Cup was sometimes decided early due to the addition of the discipline and Sprint World Cups, but this year everything is still wide open. After seven of nine World Cup races, Madeleine Egle in singles, the women's double Selina Egle/Lara Kipp (all Austria) as well as Max Langenhan and the doubles Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (all Germany) are currently leading the overall World Cup rankings.

The two-time World Champions from Whistler, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (650 points), have the biggest points cushion of all in the women's doubles with 90 points. The Austrians have topped the podium six times in a row, only falling short at the World Cup opener in Lillehammer, where they finished sixth. Their German rivals Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal have also finished second six times this season and are in second place overall with 560 points, followed by the Americans Chevonne Forgan/Sophia Kirkby (481 points), Andrea Voetter/Marion Oberhofer (ITA, 395 points) and Marta Robezniece/Kitija Bogdanova (LAT, 390 points). With a victory in PyeongChang, Egle/Kipp could secure the overall World Cup ahead of time. A second place would also be sufficient if Degenhardt/Rosenthal do not win.

In five out of seven World Cups, the World Championship bronze medalists Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt stood on the World Cup podium in the men's doubles, three times at the top. They lead the World Cup rankings with 575 points ahead of Martins Bots/Roberts Plume (LAT, 526 p.), Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl (AUT, 460 p.), Toni Eggert/Florian Müller (GER, 451 p.), Yannik Müller/Armin Frauscher (AUT, 399 p.) and World Champions Hannes Orlamünder/Paul Gubitz (GER, 399 p.). If Wendl/Arlt win in PyeongChang and Bots/Plume do not finish second, they could claim their sixth overall World Cup victory.

In the women's event, the current leader Madeleine Egle (AUT, 544 points) and three-time World Champion Julia Taubitz (GER, 515 points) are going head-to-head. Both have finished on the podium five times each, but Egle has won four of the seven World Cup races and could claim the first overall World Cup of her career with another victory, which Taubitz has previously won three times in a row. Lisa Schulte (AUT, 470 p.), currently in third place, only has a theoretical chance.

In the men's singles event, last year's winner and last weekend’s three-time World Champion Max Langenhan (GER, 556 P.) has a good chance of defending his Overall World Cup title. He is 40 points ahead of Nico Gleirscher (AUT, 516 P.) and could also clinch the title with a victory if Gleirscher does not finish second. Gleirscher, on the other hand, needs to win at least one race and see Langenhan finish outside the top three to keep the title race open. For Nico's brother David Gleirscher, the 2018 Olympic Champion, this is a return to the scene of his greatest sporting success in seven years.

An overview of the Overall World Cup standings and the individual disciplines can be found here: fil-luge.org/en/overall-scores?event_season_id=32

Schedule 8th EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup, PyeongChang (KOR)

Local start time (CET/MEZ)

Friday, February 14, 2025

12:30 (04:30) Training seeded group

Saturday, February 15, 2025

10:00 (01:00) Nations Cup

17:00 (09:00) Men’s and Women’s Doubles, 1st run
18:45 (10:45) Men’s and Women’s Double, 2nd run

20:30 (12:30) Men’s Singles, 1st run
22:05 (14:05) Men’s Singles, 2nd run

Sunday, February 16, 2025

17:30 (09:30) Women’s Singles, 1st run
18:55 (10:55) Women’s Singles, 2nd run

20:00 (12:00) Mixed Doubles
21:15 (13:15) Mixed Singles

Subject to change without notice!