Cortina Olympic Champions at the Start Cup: "International Participation Is More Than Welcome to Grow Again"

This coming Saturday, Meransen belongs to the youngest: international summer races for youth categories B, C, D and E will take place on the starting track at the Gitschberg. At the 33rd Gitschberg Start Cup on 29 August, 55 athletes competed, including several Olympic medallists and champions from Cortina 2026. Luge Section Manager Helena Stampfl is delighted by the loyalty of the regulars – and would welcome broader international participation in the future.

Meransen sits at 1,400 metres in the South Tyrolean Pustertal valley, just below the Gitschberg. For 33 years, the village has been the late-summer venue for one of the most enduring competitions in the international luge calendar.

This year, 55 athletes took part. A year after the Olympics – in 2025 there were over 100 – the numbers were lower. Section leader Helena Stampfl is not surprised. "In an Olympic year there are more people, more budgets available," she says. "The year after looks different." She would have liked to see more German and Austrian senior teams. Instead, the youth dominated. In recent years, the Start Cup has increasingly opened its doors to junior men, junior women and Youth A – and that opening is bearing fruit.

The Results – and the Big Names Behind Them

In the general class, Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) won ahead of Lukas Peccei (ITA) and Leon Felderer (ITA). Fischnaller was the first luger ever to go down the new Olympic track in Cortina – and claimed bronze there last February. In the women's event, Verena Hofer (ITA) won ahead of Marion Oberhofer (ITA) and Nina Zöggeler (ITA). In the senior women's doubles, Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer won. In the senior men's doubles, Ivan Nagler and Simon Malleier (ITA) took victory.

In the junior men's event, Paul Socher (AUT), Junior World Champion 2025, came out on top. In the junior women's event, Alexandra Oberstolz (ITA) won.

Erika Lechner and the Starting Track

The history of the facility in Meransen is bound up with the name of Erika Lechner. The South Tyrolean won Olympic gold in Grenoble in 1968 – the first Italian woman ever to do so in luge. Lechner was and remains the figurehead of South Tyrolean luge. A full artificial ice track was once planned in Meransen but never built; what emerged instead was a starting track and a traditional, international competition.

The track measures 250 metres – a there-and-back facility, artificially iced, operated with a cooling system that has been converted from ammonia to glycol. "The start is one of the most important things in the whole race," says Stampfl. "Our teams insisted that this starting track must survive." That is not something to be taken for granted. Twice, closure was seriously on the table – around the turn of the millennium and again a few years ago. Funding had been cut, club members had stepped back. Stampfl took over more than two decades ago. "You need stamina," she says. "Even in luge, where everything comes down to hundredths and thousandths of a second, there are marathon races."

Olympic Champions as Regulars

Historical results lists show names that went on to make World Cup history. At the 12th edition in 2003, Armin Zöggeler won the men's event, Ashley Hayden – today FIL Executive Board member as Ashley Walden – won the women's. Tatjana Hüfner and the Linger brothers stood on the podium. In 2026, Dominik Fischnaller, Marion Oberhofer, Andrea Vötter and Emanuel Rieder all competed. 

Volunteering and Outlook

The Gitschberg Start Cup runs on volunteer work. "The effort stays the same whether 50 or 100 athletes compete," says Stampfl. "We live for the club." In the past, teams came from Ukraine, Latvia, Switzerland and the United States – ten, twelve nations. Numbers had already been falling before Covid. For next year, Stampfl hopes for more international participation.

This Saturday, Youth B, C, D and E start in Meransen. These young athletes are also coached by Stampfl's son, David Mair. And she herself keeps going on. "We do it because we enjoy it, after all."