Women’s doubles to make Olympic debut at YOG 2020 in Lausanne

Lausanne/St. Moritz (RWH) The women’s doubles will make its debut at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. The third edition of the winter youth games is set to include an all-female doubles competition for the first time. The traditional natural ice track in St. Moritz will host the luge races – with a total of five sets of medals available in the women’s, men’s, women’s doubles, men’s doubles and team relay events.

The Canadian doubles pairing of Caitlin Nash/Natalie Corless recently made headlines as the first all-female duo to compete in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, before going on to win bronze at the America Pacific Championships. However, the hot favourites for gold are Jessica Degenhardt/Vanessa Schneider from Germany and Austria’s Selina Eggle/Lara Kipp.

Jessica Degenhardt will also compete in the women’s singles alongside Merle Fräbel and will be among the medal candidates, who also include Russia’s Diana Logonova. In the men’s event, Latvia’s Gints Berzins will be following in the footsteps of his countryman Kristers Aparjods, who won gold in Lillehammer in 2016. Berzins won last year’s YOG trial run in the Upper Engadine. Germany’s Timon Grancagnolo and his team-mate Pascal Kunze also view themselves as medal hopefuls. The Russian duo of Mikhail Karnaukhov/Iurii Chirva are likely to dominate the men’s doubles, having already taken victory in St. Moritz last year.