Vancouver (pps/February 2, 2010) Together they took a sightseeing tour around Moscow in the spring of 2009. When Russia's first artificially-iced track in Paramonova, situated not far from Russia's capital, was officially opened Albert Demchenko played tour guide for Armin Zoeggeler. On the luge track, however, the roles are usually assigned quite differently. Because then it's Italy's two-time Olympic champion, five-times World champion and nine-time overall World Cup winner, who generally demonstrates to Albert Demchenko how it works in the sport of luge...
But prior to the Olympic luge event in the men's singles on February 13 (1st run at 17:00 hrs local time/02:00 hrs CET; 2nd run at 19:00 hrs local time/04:00 hrs CET) and on February 14 (3rd run at 13:00 hrs local time/22:00 hrs CET; 4th run at 15:00 local time/24:00 hrs CET) at the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, Armin Zoeggeler shifts the "burden" of being top medal contender to his long-time opponent. "My favourite is Albert Demchenko. That's what I really think since the training week in Whistler", Zoeggeler explained. "I was surprised by his confidence and his constant performances. And this is quite different to the past years."
In the Olympic winter season Demchenko's old motto "winning or crashing" has been replaced by a new one of "safety first". This was made possible by a new sled that the two-time European champion is now speeding down the track in an up to now unaccustomed and reliable way. And with his new tactics, Demchenko already collected two victories this season, and only failed podium finishes in Innsbruck-Igls and Cesana.
36-year old Zoeggeler on the other hand celebrated four World Cup victories, finished three times as runner-up and solely missed a podium-finish when he earned a sixth place on his “unloved” track in Oberhof. However, there is a fact that does not speak in favour of the exceptional luger from South Tyrol: since his 2005 World Championship title in Park City, USA, he failed to celebrate a victory at a top event - with the exception of his home track in Cesana (2006 Olympic and 2008 European gold medal).
Apart from Zoeggeler and Demchenko, only two German lugers celebrated World Cup victories: two-time World champion Felix Loch, when he earned his first World Cup victory in Altenberg and Andi Langenhan. But since the turn of the year it did not go too well for Felix Loch, in 2008 the youngest World luge champion of all times at the age of 18. It seemed as if the now 20-year old had suddenly lost his strongest asset - being carefree - and this, of all things, prior to the season's highlight.
But after his second place at the World Cup final in Cesana, Loch figures high on Zoeggeler's list of medal contenders in the men's singles, carried out on the first week-end at the Olympic Games. Another German luger is on that list, too - David Moeller. As winner of the Olympic test event in February 2009, Moeller has only good memories of the "Whistler Sliding Center". "From now on Whistler will be my favourite track", the two-time World champion explained after this victory.
Last but not least there is Andi Langenhan, winner of the event in Oberhof, who would not object to being referred to as an "insider tip" to earn a medal. "Yes, why not", Langenhan said after the second World Cup success in his career.
Armin Zoeggeler - apart from his two gold medals (2002 and 2006) he also earned silver (1998) and bronze (1994) at Olympic Games - also believes that Canada's Sam Edney might be able to create a surprise. "Edney has had more runs in Whistler than any of us. He might cause quite a stir," Zoeggeler reckons. However, so far Canada has failed to win a medal at Olympic Games. The best results in the men's singles are two twelve-place finishes of Bruce Smith (Lake Placid, 1980) and Kyle Connelly (Salt Lake City, 2002).
