Maria Luise Rainer now FIL Event Director for Milano Cortina 2026
Salzburg (FIL/29 April 2023) With immediate effect, FIL Sport Director Maria Luise Rainer will be the FIL Event Director for the Olympic Winter Games 2026 in Milano Cortina. The overall World Cup winner of the 1985/86 season and OC Director of the luge competitions at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin will thus be the central contact person of the FIL for all matters concerning the planning and preparation of the Olympic luge competitions in 2026.
Matthias Böhmer new Sport Director
Also effective immediately, Matthias Böhmer will take over the position of Sport Director Artificial Track. The former luge athlete and later bobsleigh coach already worked for the FIL last year as Assistant to the Sports Director and Technical Director and was able to familiarize himself with all areas of responsibility of the Sports Director. After nine years as Sports Director, Maria Luise Rainer assured her successor of her full support.
"With this appointment, the FIL Presidium reacts to the difficult situation regarding the planning status of the Olympic luge competitions in 2026 and employs the best qualified person to coordinate and further advance the discussions with our friends in Italy at the most competent level. Mrs. Rainer will, among other things, take care of all invitations to meetings regarding the Olympic Games 2026 on behalf of the FIL. Her successor Matthias Böhmer is well prepared as Sports Director. He was present at all General Class competitions during the entire season," said FIL President Einars Fogelis.
FIL Secretary General Dwight Bell underlines the importance of this position: "In order to contribute to the coordination of a successful luge center and events in Cortina for the Olympic Winter Games 2026, the FIL is maximizing its resources with the aim to support the Milano Cortina Organizing Committee and the Veneto/Cortina region on their way to a long-term legacy for the sport of luge.”
Personal background:
Four-time Olympian Maria Luise Rainer of Italy competed in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck at the age of 16. In 1979, she won the bronze medal in the women's singles at the World Championships. In 1980, Rainer competed in her second Olympic Games in Lake Placid. In the same year, she won the silver medal at the European Championships. Rainer celebrated probably her greatest sporting success in the 1985/86 season when she won the overall World Cup in women's luge. She compeated in the 1984 Sarajevo and the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games. In 1988, the South Tyrolean won the bronze medal with the team at the European Championships.
After her active career ended, Maria Luise Rainer became a luge coach for the Italian federation and later also coached the Canadian national team. Since 2003, she has been the permanent Technical Delegate of the International Luge Federation (FIL) for the Junior World Cup. She was race director at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin and later at various World Cup events. In 2010, she succeeded Karl-Heinz Anschütz as Sports Coordinator of the International Luge Federation, and on April 1, 2014, Maria Luise Rainer was promoted to Sports Director Artificial Track. Nine years later, she is now FIL Event Director for the Olympic Winter Games 2026 in Milano Cortina.
Matthias Böhmer was an active luge athlete from 1998 to 2009 and a bobsled pilot from 2009 to 2015. In bobsleigh, he achieved several top-3 results in the European Cup and at the Junior World Championships for the WSV Königssee.
From 2016 to 2020, he was team manager and coach for the German Bobsleigh and Sled Federation (BSD). From 2020 until the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022, Matthias Böhmer was the head coach of the British Bobsleigh Team GB and the Australians. This made him the youngest head coach at the Beijing Olympics.
As race director at various World Cups and Championships in luge, bobsleigh and skeleton, including the 2016 FIL World Championships in Koenigssee, Matthias Böhmer has proven his organizational talent and expertise in the organization of international championships. Since October 2022, Böhmer has been Deputy Sport and Technical Director as well as Covid Manager of the FIL. From April 2023, the 31-year-old from Schönau a. Königssee (GER) will take over as Sport Director.
