The annual stopover for the Luge World Cup in Canada and the United States starts this weekend, with racing in Whistler, followed by stops in Calgary and Lake Placid.
In the season opener in Innsbruck (AUT), Germany’s Johannes Ludwig won the standard race ahead of Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller and home favorite Wolfgang Kindl, the 2017 World Champion. Six-time World Cup champ Felix Loch (GER) was sixth.
This will be the first World Cup in Whistler since the 2016-17 season, when American Tucker West won the race, followed by Semen Pavilchenko (RUS) and Kindl. The American and Canadian sliders always do better on the North American tracks; the top area finishers in the season opener were Jonathan Gustafson (USA, 15th), Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer (USA, 17th) and West (USA, 19th).
A Team Relay competition will also be held, the first of the season. In the 2017-18 campaign, Germany won the title, ahead of Austria and Canada. Look for results here.
