World Cup luge circuit set to return to Königssee, Germany next season. Tracks for next 4 years set
The World Cup luge circuit will return to the historic, rebuilt track in Königssee, Germany next season for the first time in more than seven years
By TIM REYNOLDSThe World Cup luge circuit will return to the historic, rebuilt track in Königssee, Germany next season for the first time in more than seven years, and North America will host sliding weekends five times in the next Olympic cycle, officials said Thursday.
For the first time, the International Luge Federation has released an entire four-year schedule of World Cup races going into the start of a new Olympic cycle. There will be 37 major races from the start of the 2026-27 season through the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps — with 28 of those in Europe.
“With this four-year calendar, the FIL is sending a clear signal of stability, transparency, and reliability in international luge,” FIL President Einars Fogelis said.
The Königssee track was destroyed by flooding in 2021, with large chunks of the facility getting washed away and others turned into piles of rubble. Königssee was the first artificially refrigerated sliding track in the world, having converted from a natural track in the late 1960s.
Among the schedule highlights:
Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, New York, will play host to the world championships in 2029, a year before the Olympics.
Lake Placid will also get a World Cup in 2027-28. Whistler, British Columbia, gets World Cup races in 2027-28 and 2028-29, and Park City, Utah — which will be the site of sliding at the 2034 Olympics — will have a World Cup in 2027-28 as well.
The Olympic tracks in Pyeongchang, South Korea and Yanqing, China will have World Cups again. The circuit will go to both tracks in the 2026-27 and 2029-30 seasons.
Pyeongchang was the 2018 Olympic host. Yanqing was the host in 2022.
The renovated track in Igls, Austria will host next season's world championships, and Königssee will be the worlds host in 2028.
Lake Placid gets worlds in 2029. There are no world championships in the Olympic season.
La Plagne, the next Olympic host, will have two World Cups in the next three seasons, giving athletes plenty of chances to develop familiarity with the track.
“The fact that athletes, coaches, media, and partners already know today where the most important races of the coming years will take place is a milestone for our sport," FIL Sports Director Matthias Böhmer said. “This makes sponsorship, TV planning, and youth development much easier.”
There are six tracks with races in each of the next four seasons. The four German tracks — Altenberg, Winterberg, Oberhof and Königssee — all made the cut, as did Igls, Austria and Sigulda, Latvia.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy — the site of last month's Olympic sliding events — has three race weekends over the next four years, and when adding in the 2030 Games, so does La Plagne.
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