Krombach (pps) The International Luge Federation FIL and its main sponsor Viessmann are celebrating an unusual “jubilee” in the post-Olympic winter. The German company for heating engineering has been supporting international luge for exactly ten years.
Viessmann’s sports sponsoring in luge started in the 1992-93 season with a contract for helmet advertising, was extended in the 1995-96 season with an agreement as main and title sponsor for the Viessmann Luge World Cup and has “long since grown into an established partnership between a business enterprise and an international sports federation” as FIL President Josef Fendt commented at the FIL Media Seminar at the Krombach Brewery. Fendt continued: „This is a great honour for such a small World federation as FIL. As far as I know no other International Winter Sports Federation has such a long tradition with one sponsor.”

The special occasion induced a special award: Gerd Hesselbach, head of sports marketing with Viessmann, was presented with the Golden Honour Award of FIL by the FIL President. This award was most recently given to US American Dwight Bell on the occasion of the 50 th FIL Congress at St. Wolfgang in Austria last summer.
Hesselbach reviewed the past ten years, described anecdotes from “Scenes of a Marriage” with the usual highs and lows and reported about “joint children” as the introduction of new competition systems, for instance.
The current contract between Viessmann and FIL is running until the 2003-04 season.
In addition, Viessmann supports outstanding athletes led by the three-time World and Olympic champion Georg Hackl, is title sponsor of the cross-country skiing World Cup and presenting sponsor in biathlon and ski-jumping.

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