Season preview: Comebacks & Corona - EBERSPÄCHER World Cup, BMW Sprint World Cup and, as the season's highlight, the anniversary World Championships at Königssee (GER)

Innsbruck (FIL) Special conditions require special measures. In order not to endanger the 43rd World Cup winter in luge - during the worldwide pandemic with the corona virus - extensive protective and hygienic measures were decided upon. According to the current status, there will be no spectators at the tracks. The number of participants, training runs, helpers and media was severely restricted. The races will take place almost exclusively in Europe and under strict protection and hygiene measures. But all races will be broadcast on TV and/or can be watched live online. It will definitely be exciting for fans and friends of the fast luge sport. Variety, action and diversity are to be expected. Because the world's top athletes are more broadly based than before.
For the first time the race series will be held as EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup. The season opener from November 27 to 29, 2020 in Innsbruck (AUT) offers a mega program right from the start. In addition to the four Olympic disciplines women, men, doubles and team relay, there will also be a decision in the BMW Sprint World Cup (women, men, doubles). 

Comeback of the German Ladies

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea, they won gold and silver, took a baby break in the 2019/20 season, both gave birth to a son and are about to make their comeback in the pre-Olympic season. The German luge aces Natalie Geisenberger, with 49 World Cup victories, five Olympic medals and nine World Championship titles the most successful female luge athlete of all time, and her team and roommate Dajana Eitberger, silver medal winner of PyeongChang 2018, are returning to the ice track. Their comebacks are eagerly awaited. Five different women from three different nations were able to win races last winter. Julia Taubitz (GER), Tatyana Ivanova, World Champion Ekaterina Katnikova (both RUS), Anna Berreiter (GER) and Eliza Tiruma (LAT) want to win again in 2020/21. Eleven different women from five countries luged to the podium last winter. With the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup and the 50th FIL Luge World Championships, the coming season promises to be more exciting than it has been in a long time.

Men's World Cup and World Championships - Roman Repilov favourite

World champion and overall World Cup winner Roman Repilov (RUS) wants to defend his two titles in winter 2020/21. The competition will not make it easy for him. Eleven men from six nations stood on the podium last winter. Right at the start of the season in Innsbruck the Austrians, with Olympic champion David Gleirscher, Reinhard Egger and the World Cup medal winners Jonas Müller and Wolfgang Kindl, will set the pace on their home track. The German Olympic champions Johannes Ludwig (2018 Team Relay) and Felix Loch (3x Gold 2010 and 2014 in individual and team events) have great chances to collect World Cup points, especially considering the many home races on German tracks. But also Repilov's team mate Semen Pavlichenko has already won twelve World Cup races, one overall victory and one World Cup title.

Doubles with strong competition - Comeback Steu/Koller

The fight for world cup points in the doubles has become harder. The permanent duel between the two German World Champions Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (World Champions 2017, 2019 and 2020) and the Olympic Champions of 2014 and 2018 Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt is now experiencing great variety. Last winter, six different teams from four nations won the World Cup. Austria's Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller, in particular, heated up their rival from Germany with four podium finishes and a World Cup victory, until their training crash in Sigulda, Latvia, when Thomas Steu broke his tibia and fibula. For the new season, the two Austrians with great ambitions are about to make their comeback at the World Cup opener at home in the Igls ice channel. The Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics, two-time Olympic medal winners, finished in bronze in the overall World Cup 2020 and took their first two World Cup victories, in Sigulda and in the sprint in Lake Placid. At the 49th FIL Luge Championships 2020 in Sochi (RUS), Russia's Aleksandr Denisev/Vladislav Antonov became sprint World Champions, in the overall World Cup they finished fourth. But also the two Poles Wojciech Chmielewski/Jakub Kowalewski have shown that they have big ambitions with their first World Cup podium place in Winterberg and best time in the first race at the World Cup in Innsbruck.
The EBERSPÄCHER World Cup with a total of nine race weekends and the 50th FIL Luge World Championships from January 29 to 31, 2021, at Königssee, Bavaria, promise highest excitement and diversity in all disciplines. For the first time in the 2019/20 season, the teams from Italy and Russia were able to receive the big JOSKA crystal ball with equal points. Especially in the EBERSPÄCHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW, the ranks on the podium will again be fiercely contested in the new winter.

All 120 athletes* tested negative on arrival in Innsbruck on Monday / USA and Canada will not start internationally until January 2021
Athletes from 20 nations have registered for the opening race in Innsbruck-Igls. Athletes from Australia, Argentina, Korea and Russia are participating. 42 men, 37 women and 22 doubles will be at the start. At the Covid-19 test on Monday, November 23, 2020 all athletes were negative.
Due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, the luge athletes from the USA and Canada will not enter the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup 2020/21 until January 2021.