Preview 8th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz (SUI): Luge elite visiting the world's only natural ice track
St. Moritz - Celerina (FIL/14.02.2023) This weekend, the penultimate of the nine World Cup stops of the 45th FIL World Cup season will take place. From February 17 to 19, 2023, the international luge athletes compete for the next World Cup points on the legendary Olympic Bob Run, which leads from St. Moritz to Celerina. In addition to the races in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup, the fifth of the six team relays of the EBERSPÄCHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW is scheduled for Sunday.
The only natural ice track in the world has been an established part of the Luge World Cup again for the last two years. The 1722m long track is built from scratch every year. Although every curve in the terrain is leveled out precisely, there are minimal changes in the alignment every year. Construction always begins in the last week of November at Sunny Corner, and then the track crew continues until the finish or outrun. The track from the start to Sunny Corner is built at the end.
Within three weeks, 15,000 m3 of snow and 10,000 m3 of water are used to build the world's largest snow sculpture in the magnificent natural arena of the Upper Engadine. Since no chemicals are used at all, the Olympic Bob Run in the Engadine is also the most ecological bob track in the world.
Overall World Cup decisions still open in all disciplines
With the Sprint decision, maximum 200 World Cup points were awarded last weekend in every discipline in Winterberg. After the three Sprint events in Innsbruck, Park City and Winterberg, Julia Taubitz (GER), Dominik Fischnaller (ITA), Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (GER) as well as Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (AUT) and Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer (ITA) with equal points were celebrated as winners of the 2022/23 FIL Sprint World Cup.
While Julia Taubitz in the women's singles and Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer in the women's doubles have created a good cushion of 100 points in the overall World Cup, the men's singles, the men's doubles and the Team Relay events are much closer.
After three wins in a row, Julia Taubitz has a good chance of defending her victory in the Overall World Cup of the Women’s singles discipline. The 26-year-old from Saxony leads with 807 points ahead of her teammates Dajana Eitberger (702 points) and Anna Berreiter (649 points). Austria's Madeleine Egle, who scored 561 points, has little chance of making it onto the podium.
In the men's event, Italy's Dominik Fischnaller is still in the lead with 715 points, followed by Felix Loch (GER) and Wolfgang Kindl (AUT) with 636 and 554 points respectively. David Gleirscher (AUT, 546 p.) and Kristers Aparjods (LAT, 505 p.) also still hope for the podium.
With their ninth podium finish, Italy's Voetter/Oberhofer further extended their lead in the Overall Women's doubles World Cup with 855 points, followed by Egle/Kipp (755 p.) and World champions Degenhardt/Rosenthal (713 p.).
It remains exciting until the end in the Men's doubles as usual: With their two victories in Winterberg Wendl/Arlt could distance themselves a little bit from their teammates Eggert/Benecken (785 p.) and Bots/Plume (LAT, 641 p.) with 814 points. In the Team Relay Overall World Cup Germany and Latvia currently share the lead with 255 points.
Schedule & TV coverage
Local start time (=CET/MEZ)
Friday, 17. 02. 2023
09:00 FIL Nationscup
14:30 Training seeded group
Saturday, 18. 02. 2023
08:30 Men’s doubles, 1st run
09:20 Women’s doubles, 1st run
10:15 Men’s doubles, 2nd run
11:05 Women’s doubles, 2nd run
12:20 Men, 1st run
13:45 Men, 2nd run
Sunday, 19. 02. 2023
08:50 Women, 1st run
10:20 Women, 2nd run
12:30 Team-Relay
Link for Live TV coverage and FIL-Media Guide – information to all athletes:
https://www.fil-luge.org/de/multimedia
FIL-Studio: From 30 minutes before and after all races you will always find live interviews with the winners and background information about the races live in the FIL-Studio on our YouTube channel: FIL Luge - YouTube
