Season Review Episode 4 of 6 / Women's Doubles: Consistency wins –
Egle/Kipp win the World Championship title – Vötter/Oberhofer overall win

Berchtesgaden (FIL/16 Apr. 2024) Selina Egle and Lara Kipp from Austria secured the women's doubles World Championship title at the 52nd FIL Luge World Championships in Altenberg with two consistently good runs. The women's doubles race in Altenberg was a record-breaking event. In the first run Latvia's Anda Upite/Zane Kaluma improved the track record to 42.334 seconds, Cevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (USA) achieved the same time in the second run. However, it was not enough for both pairs to win the title.

Selina Egle and Lara Kipp can call themselves World Champions. The Austrians needed 1:24.761 minutes for their two runs. Upite/Kaluma were 0.050 seconds slower. Forgan/Kirkby were 0.136 seconds behind. The US duo also won bronze at the World Championships in Winterberg two years ago.

Sprint World Champions Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (Italy) finished fourth ahead of the Americans Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler.

Local heroes Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal missed a hat-trick of titles. The two Germans, the only World Champion duo in the statistics so far, did not have a clean run in the first heat - seventh place. In the second run they made another mistake at the end of curve 9 and hit the wall with a big bump. In the end they finished in 13th place.

Due to the exciting and close decisions, the women’s doubles race was especially exciting for the spectators.

Vötter / Oberhofer defend overall World Cup title

Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer from Italy triumphed again in the overall women's doubles luge World Cup for the second time in a row. With 955 points, they secured the big crystal globe of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup, while their German rivals Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal finished in second place with 895 points. Despite a crash in the sprint race a week ago, Degenhardt/Rosenthal managed to get their hands on the small crystal globe for their success in the individual races.

"Wow, winning the big crystal globe for the second time," said a jubilant Vötter after their triumph, emphasizing the increasing competition: "But the competition is getting tougher and tougher. It was more fiercely contested than our first success." Oberhofer added: "The ball will take pride of place."

Third place overall went to the German doubles’ debutants Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer with 886 points. World champions Selina Egle and Lara Kipp from Austria finished fourth overall (859 points) with three wins, three bronze medals and four other top six finishes, ahead of the Americans Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (706) and Ukraine’s Olena Stetskiv and Oleksandra Mokh (449).

Our season review series continues next week. In the fifth and penultimate episode, we look back on the men's doubles season.