The FIL World Luge Championships 2008 took place January 21-27, 2008 at the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in

Oberhof, Germany Oberhof is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district of Thuringia, Germany. Located in the Thuringian Forest mountain range, it is a winter sports center and health resort. With 1,625 inhabitants (December 2016), it is visited by 144,000 touri ...

for the third time after having hosted the event in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

and

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. The relay competition took the place of the team event that had been held at every

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

since

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. This event had all of teams start at the same part of the track (located at the women's singles/ men's doubles start house), then run down to the finish and tap on a relay marker to exchange from one slider on a team to the next (men's doubles to women's singles to men's singles) with the fastest time winning.

Event preparations

In an effort to prepare for the championships, the track underwent a major

renovation Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...

in 2006, costing

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4 million.

Ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a tol ...

sales at the finish area for all three days were sold out. Besides the competitors, the organizing team consisted of 250

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

s, 60

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

guards, 30

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

s, 100

service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...

staff members, 15 tellers, ten drivers, and 30

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

soldiers and members of the

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rescue Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, or the urgent treatment of injuries after an accident or a dangerous situation. Tools used might include search and rescue dogs, mounted search and rescue ho ...

service. (21 January 2008 article accessed 22 January 2008.) Organizing Committee President Bernd Rossmann (spelled Roßmann in Germany) stated that "We can expect 5,000 Visitors each day, but we hope we can reach 10,000 daily. Tickets remain available." (24 January 2008 article accessed 24 January 2008.) 200 media passes were also given out for the event. Television coverage took place live on

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

2, showing the women's singles event, the first run of the men's singles event, and both runs of the men's doubles event.

Participating nations

21 nations entered competitors into the championships, including 42 men's singles, 36 women's singles, and 24 men's doubles. 77 officials were also part of the competitor's list. Countries that were planning on competing who withdrew were

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

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Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

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, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Time tables

The current, non-competitive schedule was updated as of January 22, 2008. (22 January 2008 article accessed 22 January 2008.) *Practice dates for the events took place January 21-25, 2008. *A

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took place 6 PM CET (17:00 UTC) on the 23rd. *Opening ceremonies took place 8 PM

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(19:00 UTC) on the 24th. FIL President

Josef Fendt Josef Fendt (born 6 October 1947 in Berchtesgaden) is the immediate past president of the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL), having served from 1994 to 2020. He was a West German-German luger who competed from the mi ...

declared the event officially open on 8:46 PM CET (19:46 UTC) with fireworks and music as part of the ceremony. (25 January 2008 article accessed 25 January 2008.) Accompanying Fendt was

Dieter Althaus Dieter Althaus (born 29 June 1958 in Heiligenstadt/ Eichsfeld) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 3rd Minister President of Thuringia from 2003 to 2009. In 2003/04 he was the 58th President of the B ...

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

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. *Closing ceremonies took place 3 PM CET (14:00 UTC) on the 27th.

Men's singles

January 26, 2008 at 11 AM CET (10:00 UTC) Loch becomes the youngest

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

ever.

Women's singles

January 25, 2008 at 2 PM CET (13:00 UTC) A retirement ceremony was held prior to the start of the event for four-time women's singles world champion

Sylke Otto Sylke Otto (born 7 July 1969 in Karl-Marx-Stadt) is a former German luger who competed from 1991 to 2007. Competing in three Winter Olympics, she won the gold medal in the women's singles event in 2002 an ...

, who won in

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, and

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, before retiring prior to last year's world championships in

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Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Hüfner defended her title despite setting start and track records in the first run only to have current European champion Geisenberger follow up with start and track records of her own on the second run. Kraushaar-Pielach won her tenth and final career medal at the world championships.

Men's doubles

January 27, 2008 at 10 AM CET (09:00 UTC) This was Florschütz and Wustlich's third world championship in this event, having previously won in

and

. This is the first championship medal for the

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duo of Wendl and Arlt who set the start record during the second run. It was the seventh medal for the Schiegl brothers. Defending

world champions A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Patric Leitner Patric-Fritz Leitner (born 23 February 1977 in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria) is a German luger who competed from 1998 to 2010. Together with Alexander Resch he won the men's doubles event at the 2002 Winter Olym ...

and

Alexander Resch Alexander Resch (born 5 April 1979 in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria) is a German luger who competed from 1998 to 2010. Together with Patric Leitner, he won the men's doubles event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States. They also ...

of Germany finished a disappointing 11th place while defending European champions

Christian Oberstolz Christian Oberstolz (born 8 August 1977 in Innichen) is an Italian luger who has competed since 1997. He won seven medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with two silvers (Men's doubles: 2011, Mixed team: 2007) and five ...

and

Patrick Gruber Patrick Gruber (born 31 January 1978 in Bruneck) is an Italian luger who has competed since 1997. He won seven medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with two silvers (Men's doubles: 2011, Mixed team: 2007) and five br ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

finished 21st after the first run and did not even qualify for the second run of the event.

Mixed team relay

January 27, 2008 at 1 PM CET (12:00 UTC) The

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won their ninth medal of these championships and the first ever mixed team relay event in the world championships.

Television ratings

On January 27, 2008, the German

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station

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, the mixed team relay had 3.21 million viewers or a 17.6 percent rating while the men's doubles event held earlier that day averaged 2.09 million viewers or an 18.2 percent rating. Felix Loch's victory in the men's singles event drew two million viewers or a 17.4 percent share. (29 January 2008 article accessed 31 January 2008.)

Medal table

Notes and references

Men's doubles World Champions

External links

{{Luge World Championships FIL World Luge Championships 2008 in luge Sport in Oberhof, Germany 2008 in German sport International luge competitions hosted by Germany 2000s in Thuringia