Calgary (pps) With a considerable increase in prize money in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, the SUZUKI Challenge Cup and the SUZUKI Team Relay, the International Luge Federation, FIL, is sending a clear message in the upcoming pre-Olympic season. “Our focus is always on the athletes who ultimately made this suggestion. But of course we need to keep within the bounds of our capabilities”, FIL President Josef Fendt commented the increase in prize money.

Instead of the previous roughly 30,000 euros, the victories in the respective overall rankings (women’s and men’s single, double-seater) of the Viessmann Luge World Cup will now be rewarded with approximately 40,000 euros. With immediate effect, the overall champion in the women’s and men’s singles will pocket a prize money of 4,000 euros, the overall doubles’ champions even 5,000 euros. The prize money for individual World Cup victories in all three disciplines has been increased by more than one fifth. And what is more, in the pre-Olympic season prior to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, the FIL Calendar now boasts nine instead of eight World Cup events as in the 2007-2008 winter. The total volume of this increase in prize money amounts to approximately thirty per-cent for the upcoming season.