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World Cup winner Germany and World champion Austria top favourites for team relay

Team Germany

Yanqing (FIL) Germany won the overall ranking of the EBERSPÄCHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW for the tenth time in the 2021 pre-Olympic winter with 415 points ahead of Russia (385) and Latvia (330). Team Relay World Champion Austria followed in fourth place with 325 points. 

Austria became World Champion with the Team Relay for the first time in 2021 and that on the traditional German track at Königssee. In the tenth Team Relay World Championships overall, since the discipline's World Championships debut in Oberhof in 2008, Germany has won the World Championships title eight times. Up until the 2019 World Championships in Winterberg, this happened seven times in a row. Then in 2019 in Sauerland came the turning point. Russia's relay team became World Champions for the first time and last winter, at the 50th FIL World Championships at Königssee in Bavaria, the team of Austria with Madeleine Egle, David Gleirscher and the doubles team of Thomas Steu / Lorenz Koller won. Germany was beaten for the second time at a home World Championships and had to settle for silver.

Team Austria

Four different nations won the five relay races of the winter 2020/21. Germany was successful at the start in Innsbruck and in Oberhof. Italy won in Altenberg, Saxony, Austria at the World Cup in Königssee and later also at the World Championships. The Russian team was able to climb to the top of the podium in Sigulda, Latvia. Latvia was on the podium with the relay team in Altenberg and Sigulda and the Polish team won a medal for the first time at the World Cup in Oberhof. Klaudia Domaradzka, Mateusz Sochowicz and the doubles team Chmielewski/Kowalewski convinced with third place in December 2020 in Thuringia. In addition, there are the teams of the USA, who luge on the podium at the World Championships in 2020, and Canada, who won silver at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. So the 2022 Olympic winter promises a lot of excitement in the team relay events.