Berlin (pps) Italy’s Wilfried Huber might set up a unique record in the history of Olympic Winter Games. The luger from South Tyrol, Olympic doubles’ champion together with Kurt Brugger at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, might be the first ever athlete to compete for the seventh time in Winter Games. Since 1988 in Calgary, the now 38-year old competed in all Olympic Winter Games – in Albertville (1992), Lillehammer (1994), Nagano (1998), Salt Lake City (2002) and Torino (2006).
Huber, however, needs to qualify for one of the altogether three Olympic starting places for Italy. At the 41st FIL World Luge Championships in Lake Placid in 2009 he finished on 15th place as the third-best Italian luger. Wilfried Huber, who will celebrate his 39th birthday on November 15, took 16th place in the 2008-09 Viessmann Luge World Cup overall rankings.
Huber celebrated his greatest successes in the double-seater together with Kurt Brugger. Additionally to their 1994 Olympic victory the team also earned two fifth places at Olympic Games: 1992 in Albertville and 1998 in Nagano. In the men’s singles event Huber furthermore earned a ninth place at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and a tenth place at the 2006 Olympic Games in front of a home crowd in Torino.
“Willi” is the last still active athlete of the legendary Huber family from South Tyrol. His older brother Guenther took the 1988 Olympic title in the two-man bobsleigh. Then Norbert won bronze at the 1992 Olympic Games and celebrated numerous World Championship titles in the double-seater (together with Hansjoerg Raffl). Arnold, the youngest of the four brothers, captured the gold medal in the men’s singles in Winterberg in 1990.
According to an official statement by the International Olympic Committee, IOC, altogether 14 athletes achieved to compete in six different Olympic Winter Games. This IOC list also features luger Anne Abernathy of the Virgin Islands. At her last Olympics in Torino she had to withdraw from the competition due to a hand injury suffered in training. Abernathy held the national flag during the Opening Ceremony.
Apart from Abernathy and Huber, there are three-time Olympic champion Georg Hackl from Germany and Austria’s Markus Prock who all boast six starts at Olympic Games. Though the Lillehammer Olympic luge champion Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy also competed in six Olympic Games, she started in the bobsleigh events at the 2006 Olympics in Torino when she earned the bronze medal.
