By TIM REYNOLDSFebruary 7, 2021 GMT
Natalie Geisenberger of Germany smiles in the finish area after the women s race at the Luge World Championships in Koenigssee, Germany, Sunday Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Andreas Schaad)
Natalie Geisenberger of Germany smiles in the finish area after the women s race at the Luge World Championships in Koenigssee, Germany, Sunday Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Andreas Schaad)
Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger ended this season in her usual spot, atop the women’s luge world.
Geisenberger clinched her eighth World Cup overall championship Sunday with a 13th-place finish in the season finale in St. Moritz, Switzerland. She won seven consecutive World Cups from 2012-13 through 2018-19, took last season off for the birth of her first child and reclaimed the crystal globe this winter.
Austria wins doubles luge title, Britcher medals for US
January 24, 2021 GMT
IGLS, Austria (AP) Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller of Austria clinched the World Cup luge doubles overall championship Sunday, while Natalie Geisenberger of Germany moved even closer to what could be her eighth women’s season-long title.
It also was a big day for USA Luge: Summer Britcher gave the Americans their first World Cup medal of the season, grabbing a bronze in the women’s race.
Steu and Koller finished second in a sprint race, giving them enough points to earn the crown and become the first non-German sled to win the doubles season title since fellow Austrians Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger won the trophy nine seasons ago.
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Golden win for Geisenberger, who gets 50th World Cup victory
OBERHOF, Germany (AP) Natalie Geisenberger of Germany claimed the 50th World Cup women’s luge win of her career on Sunday, her first since returning to the circuit following a one-year break for the birth of her first child.
Geisenberger was the fastest in both runs and finished about a quarter-second ahead of Austria’s Madeleine Egle. Anna Berreiter of Germany was third.
Geisenberger who had finished second in each of the season’s first eight races extended her World Cup points lead over fellow German slider Julia Taubitz to 74 points with three races left. Geisenberger could clinch her eighth overall season title as soon as next weekend’s stop in Innsbruck, Austria.
KONIGSSEE, Germany (AP) Julia Taubitz of Germany got her fifth win of the women’s World Cup luge season on Sunday, closing the gap between her and series leader Natalie Geisenberger in the overall women’s standings to four points.
Geisenberger, also of Germany, finished second her seventh silver medal in seven races this season. Madeleine Egle of Austria took third.
Geisenberger now has 595 points on the season as she seeks an eighth overall title in nine years; she didn’t compete last season after giving birth to her first child. Taubitz, last season’s overall women’s champion, has 591 points.
Arndt, Farquharson grab spots on USA Luge World Cup roster
December 11, 2020 GMT
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) Brittney Arndt and Ashley Farquharson grabbed the last two available spots on USA Luge’s World Cup roster on Friday, rounding out the 10-person team that is going to Europe with plans of competing in the final six races of the season starting in January.
Arndt and Farquharson clinched their spots after a two-day series of trial races at Mount Van Hoevenberg.
The rest of the roster: Emily Sweeney and Summer Britcher in women’s races; 2018 Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer, Tucker West and Jonny Gustafson for men’s events; and in doubles, Mazdzer with Jayson Terdiman on one sled, Dana Kellogg and Duncan Segger on another.