Sics/Sics are the perennial favorites in the Viessmann Luge World Cup

Berchtesgaden (RWH) Andris and Juris Sics finished 10th in their international debut at the 38th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) in Park City, USA. In the meantime, they have become an almost permanent fixture in the Viessmann World Cup, having competed in the doubles since the 2004/2005 season.

Although the duo has not yet won a World Cup doubles event, they still have an impressive record – winning silver at the 2010 Olympics followed by a brace of bronze medals four years later in the doubles and with the Latvian relay team. More recently the pair took both silver and bronze at the FIL European Championships in 2018 and 2019. The Latvian relay team has plenty of silverware in its collection, having clinched the European title in 2008 and 2010 and World Championship silver in 2016. In addition, the Sics brothers have also won four World Championship bronze medals and six other European Championship medals in the Team Relay. They took fourth place in the standings last winter.

The two Latvians, the fourth force in the doubles, were pipped to the post by the Big Three – Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER) as the overall winners and World Champions, Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller (AUT) as overall runners up and World Championship bronze medallists, and Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt in third, also clinching World Championship silver and being crowned European Champions. The two-time Olympic Champions Wendl/Arlt have been competing in the Viessmann Luge World Cup since the 2007/2008 season and lead the all-time rankings with 42 wins.

Following in the footsteps of the American duo of Chris Mazdzer/Jayson Terdiman, who finished eighth in the overall standings last year as a new doubles pairing, the Austrian pairing of Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher now want to move onto pastures new. In view of the strength in depth of the Austrian team, which features Olympic Champion David Gleirscher, former World Champion Wolfgang Kindl, Sprint World Champion Jonas Müller and Vice World Champion Reinhard Egger, the Tyrolean Frauscher and Müller, who hails from Vorarlberg, are keen to compete in the doubles.

World Championship host nation Russia has three competitive duos who are ready and raring to go – Aleksandr Denisev/Vladislav Antonov, the winners in Sochi last winter, Vladislav Yuzhakov/Yurii Prokhorov from the victorious World Championship team relay, and the U23 World Champions Vsevolod Kashkin/Konstantin Korshunov. The squad also includes Dmitry Buchnev/Daniil Kilseev and Andrey Shander/Semen Mikov, who won silver and bronze at the Junior World Championships in 2019.