Team relay anniversary and spectacular start to the year with the European Championships

The world’s oldest artificial ice track will provide the backdrop for the International Luge Federation’s (FIL) European Championships for the first time since 1994. At the 48th annual competition, athletes will compete for gold medals in a race-in-race format in women’s, men’s, doubles, and team relay events.

 The current World Champions are favorites to take the titles after having won the international event in a spectacular competition in Königssee just short of a year ago. However, the four Olympic gold medallists Natalie Geisenberger, Felix Loch and the pairing of Tobias Wendl/Tobias Artl (all GER) first have to secure victory in front of a home crowd.

In the Viessmann World Cup, on the other hand, another set of athletes are atop the standings: The 2010 Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion Tatjana Hüfner is currently leading in the women’s event while double Junior World Champion Roman Repilov of Russia is ahead in the men’s standings. In the doubles, Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken are in the top spot after winning five out of six races.

 Following the only event so far this season in Winterberg, the Canadian team hold the top spot in the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW. The team relay event as it is known today was launched almost exactly 10 years ago, on January 7, 2007 to be precise. The new format quickly established itself, receiving its own World Cup event as early as 2010 before becoming the fourth FIL discipline to join the Winter Olympic Games program in 2014.