Vipiteno/Italy (RWH) The Viessmann Luge World Cup series has lost one of its most fetching athletes: Italy’s most successful female luger in the recent past, Sandra Gasparini of Vipiteno, has ended her active career. “There’s no more future in luge for me,” the 23-year old explained in her home town. “I always enjoyed it. But it’s really time-consuming and requires enormous efforts. I’ve always trained hard, but in the past few years I’ve hardly been able to improve.”

The two-time Olympian (20th-place finish in 2010 and a 14th-place result in 2014) celebrated her greatest success with Italian’s luge team. Aged only 17, she earned the silver medal in the Team event at the 2007 World Championships in Innsbruck-Igls (AUT). At European Championships she won a silver medal (2013) and three bronze medals (2008, 2012 and 2014) with Italy’s relay team.

Additionally, Gasparini’s medal collection features two bronze medals that she earned at the U23 World Championships in Cesana (ITA / 2011) and Altenberg (GER / 2012). Moreover she became runner-up at the 2010 junior Worlds. “It was one of the greatest moments in my career when I won the World Cup Team Relay event in Koenigssee. ” Gasparini said. With her success in January 2012 in mind she now wants to finish her training as fitness and health coach.