Preview 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup and 53rd FIL European Championships in St. Moritz (SUI):
Fight for European Championship medals and last World Cup points / Luge elite at the Olympic Bob Run St. Moritz - Celerina

St. Moritz (FIL) In January 2021, the FIL Luge World Cup will return to the Swiss winter sports resort of St. Moritz for the first time since 2012. After nine years of abstinence in Switzerland, the Olympic Bob Run St. Moritz-Celerina will see the final of the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup for the second time and also the 53rd FIL European Championships 2022 on the weekend of 22-23 January 2022.

In the so-called race-in-race mode, the 53rd FIL European Championships will be held in Sankt Moritz next weekend in addition to the 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup. Non-European nations will take part in the World Cup, but of course not in the European title competitions.

The World Cup in Switzerland will be the last test before the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, which start two weeks later on 4 February 2022.

125 athletes from 23 nations (ARG, AUS, AUT, BIH, BUL, CAN, CZE, GBR, GEO, GER, IRL, ITA, LAT, MDA, NED, POL, ROU, RUS, SUI, SVK, SWE, TPE, UKR and USA) have registered for the World Cup final on the only natural ice track in the World Cup circuit. 37 women, 44 men as well as 22 doubles and 11 team relays will participate.

Overall World Cup decision exciting until the very end in women's and doubles - Ludwig early overall winner

In the women's event, Madeleine Egle keeps the World Cup decision open with her fifth victory of the season last Sunday in Oberhof (Germany). The 23-year-old Austrian is the first non-German winner since 1997 on the traditional luge track in Thuringia, which will host the FIL World Championships at the end of January 2023. Egle is 57 points behind World Cup leader Julia Taubitz of Germany (919 points) in the overall standings of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup after eleven of twelve races.

In the overall ranking of the doubles, the race will be decided on Saturday, 22 January in St. Moritz between the Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics, who are in first place with a lead of 37 points, and the runners-up Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken from Germany.

Johannes Ludwig showed a demonstration of his class at the 8th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup last Saturday. On his home track in Oberhof, the 35-year-old not only won the fifth race this season, but also secured the overall World Cup title already before the World Cup final in St. Moritz. The German has a 146-point lead over Wolfgang Kindl (Austria), who finished fifth. Felix Loch is in third place overall with 631 points before the final race in Switzerland. Ludwig thus won the overall World Cup for the first time.

Ivanova, Pavlichenko and Wendl/Arlt top in European Championships

Tatyana Ivanova (RUS) has five European Champion titles and two silver and two bronze medals each in the European Championships statistics ahead of Olympic Champion Natalie Geisenberger (GER) with four European Champion titles and three silver medals.

In men's singles, the leader, Semen Pavlichenko, even comes from Russia. The former World Champion has won four times and one silver medal at the European Championships. Felix Loch (GER) won three times, took silver once and bronze twice and Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) has one European Championship title. The overall World Cup winner of the season Johannes Ludwig (GER) is still missing the European Championship title. He has won two silver and one bronze medal so far. World Champion Roman Repilov currently has five European Championship medals (two silver and one bronze) and Wolfgang Kindl (AUT) has one silver and one bronze medal each.

The leaders in doubles are Wendl/Arlt with three titles and five silver and one bronze medal at European Championships. Their team-mates Eggert/Benecken have also won the European title three times, silver twice and bronze once. Latvia's Sics/Sics, Austria's Steu/Koller and Russia's Denisev/Antonov have one title each to their credit.

Quotes:

René Friedl, head coach AUT: "At the last World Cup race next weekend it's all about the final points and the overall World Cup globes. Of course we want to go all out again. We are very much looking forward to the traditional World Cup venue Sankt Moritz, with the only natural ice track in the World Cup calendar, and hope for good races and great successes for our team once again."

Madeleine Egle (AUT): "I am really looking forward to the World Cup final and the European Championships in St. Moritz. It's a track I haven't raced on that often."

Kristaps Mauriņš, Team-Manager and coach LAT: „Im expecting a really interesting race here in St.Moritz, because first it will be European Championships and second fight for overall standing globes is still going on. We got very good results last season here, so we want to repeat them this season as well. Kendija is back in the track, for her most important thing will be to get back sliding feelings, because five weeks without track trainings are a lot.
Kristers ist he first time in St. Moritz, he missed last season race because of ankle injury, so he need to learn the right lines in few training runs till the race.
Brothers Sics and Roboti Double (Bots/Plume) like this track a lot, they got historical double win for Latvia last season here. Preperation for games is going according to plan, we still have to try some sleds adjustments before Beiijing, but otherwise we will be ready for the Olympics“.

Norbert Loch, Head Coach (GER): "First of all, I hope for better weather than last year, where we had catastrophic conditions. It was so warm, very unusual for St. Moritz, and the day after there was still a lot of snowfall. I hope that we can continue our performance from Oberhof. The doubles, men's and women's, showed really fine runs and that's what we have to do at the end before we go straight to China. We will also try to sprinkle in some athletics training, even though it will be difficult from an organisational point of view. There is still some work to do there in my opinion."

Julia Taubitz (GER): "In the last race it's still about the overall World Cup, which is important to me. And after that it's full focus on the Olympics!"

Sascha Benecken (GER): "We have no other chance than to attack fully in St. Moritz. If you look at the overall World Cup points, it will be a super exciting final. At the beginning of the season I would never have dreamt that it could be so exciting at the end. There are only two goals for us: First, to try to still win the big ball, and second, to stay healthy."

Tobias Arlt (GER): "We still have a score to settle with St. Moritz, it ate us in the Horseshoe last year. The track is very different from what we are used to. We are looking forward to simply enjoying the last stop before the Olympics."

Natalie Geisenberger GER): "Last year I was back in St. Moritz for the first time after nine years. There we almost all have few rides. The start ramp for the ladies and doubles is very flat, Madeleine and Andrea will certainly be strong there. I hope that I will be able to participate to some extent at the top. St. Moritz is a very beautiful place. I'm really looking forward to the days in Switzerland before I go to Beijing.

Johannes Ludwig (GER): "It was great to win the overall World Cup in Oberhof. It is a title that is worth a lot to me because I have never won it before in my career. It's a statement of consistency over the whole season and I'm happy that I stayed with it for many years and that I was still able to achieve it. That's why the globe also gets a special place at home with me."

Felix Loch (GER): "Technically, I still have one or two things I want to try out with a view to the Olympics. The track in St. Moritz is simply ideal because it is very, very long. We have a long run time, high speeds - that's why we will try out new things and hopefully make a few steps forward. I'm really looking forward to St. Moritz. The track is cool, I've raced many World Cups there and it's a worthy finish. I'd love it to be on the race calendar every year because it's one of the most beautiful tracks we have."

Schedule 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup &
53rd FIL European Championships in St. Moritz (SUI):

Friday, 21 January 2022

09:00 hrs Nations Cup (9.00 hrs Doubles, 9.45 hrs Men, 11.00 hrs Women)
13:00 hrs Training seeded group (13.00 Doubles, 13.45 Men, 14.30 Women)

Saturday, 22 February 2022

08:40 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup Doubles 1st run
10:05 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup Doubles 2nd run

11:45 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup, Men, 1st run
13:28 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup, men, 2nd run

Sunday, 23 February 2022

09:40 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup Ladies, 1st run
11:10 hrs EBERSPÄCHER World Cup Ladies, 2nd run

13:00 hrs EBERSPAECHER Team Relay Word Cup presented by BMW

Subject to change!