Dominik Fischnaller has good reason to smile: He celebrated a podium finish with the team relay. © ANSA / TOMS KALNINS

Podium finish: South Tyrol's lugers celebrate in Winterberg

At the conclusion of the World Cup stage in Winterberg (North Rhine-Westphalia), South Tyrol's lugers raced onto the podium in the team relay.

11 January 2026

From: det

About a month before the Olympic Games in Cortina, South Tyrol's luge athletes have proven they are ready for the big highlight on home soil. In Winterberg, the local speedsters were among the frontrunners in almost every event. Verena Hofer came in third, Dominik Fischnaller and the doubles team Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier each finished fourth, and to top it all off, there was another podium finish.

In the team relay, the Italians finished third, behind winners Germany and second-placed Austria. Verena Hofer, Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier, Dominik Fischnaller, and Andrea Vötter/Marion Oberhofer were responsible for this fantastic success. The performance of Vötter/Oberhofer was particularly noteworthy: the pair from Völs and Rodeneck had crashed in the doubles race shortly before this achievement, but quickly recovered from the shock and immediately delivered another strong performance.

Germany wins ahead of Austria

In the end, the South Tyrolean team finished 0,728 seconds behind the winning German team (Julia Taubitz, Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt, Felix Loch, Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal). Austria (Hannah Prock, Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl, Jonas Müller, Selina Egle/Michaela Lara) came in second, 0,623 seconds behind.