Berlin (pps/July 1, 2009) 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 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.
Russia’s Albert Demchenko, silver medal winner in Torino in 2006, will face his sixth start at Olympic Games. Already in 1992 he competed for the former EUN in the double-seater together with Alexej Selenski but then switched to the men’s singles.
Natalya Yakushenko, 2009 World Championship bronze medallist, celebrated her debut in 1992 with an eighth place for the former EUN team. After that she started for the Ukraine. However, the now 37-year old did not participate in the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. The 2010 Games in Vancouver might be her fifth Olympic Games. Two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy faces his sixth Olympic competition.
Austria’s Tobias Schiegl-Markus Schiegl, 1998 and 2006 fourth-placed at Olympic Games, will be facing their fifth Olympics in the double-seater event – just like the current World doubles’ champions, Italy’s Gerhard Plankensteiner-Oswald Haselrieder. The latter already competed in the 1992 Games – in the men’s singles. In 1994 they both missed the Olympics but since then they always competed as a team. US luger Mark Grimmette - he grabbed a bronze medal in 1998 and silver in 2002 together with Brian Martin - also faces his fifth competition at Olympic Games. In Lillehammer in 1994 Grimmette competed in the doubles’ event together with Jonathan Edwards.
