Germany Wins Inagural Mixed Doubles

From Lillehammer, NOR

(December 1, 2024) – For the first time the FIL World Cup saw a “Mixed Doubles” relay event, basically the Team Relay but with only the two doubles teams, with the men’s doubles going off first then the women’s doubles team going after them.

So it’s a relay event, and while Germany is great at most everything in luge, the Team Relay is where they’ve shined the most, winning more gold medals than the rest of the world combined. So it was little surprise that they slid to gold in the first Mixed Doubles race as well.

The very first team off the top was the Germany-2 team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt with Dajana Eitberger and Lena Matschina. Wendl and Arlt kicked things off with a run that was unmatched by anyone else in the competition. Eitberger and Matschina also threw down the quickest run for the women, and that combined time was more than enough to give Germany a lead that they would never relinquish to give both Wendl and Arlt and Eitberger and Matschina their first gold medals of the season.

Behind the Germans, though, the race was tighter.

From the penultimate starting spot, the Latvia-1 team of Lillehammer medalists Martins Bots and Roberts Plume with Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova slid to the lead ahead of the United States’ team of Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa with gold medalists Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby. Those two teams sat second and third with just the second and final German team to go.

Toni Eggert and Florian Müller had won the previous day’s men’s doubles event. They weren’t as clean on their run, and needed help from women’s doubles silver medalists Jessica Degenhardt and Cheynne Rosenthal. The women’s doubles team had a few mistakes late in their run, though, and they hit the paddle into seventh place.

That gave Latvia and the United States the silver and bronze medals in the inaugural event.

After the race, Dajana Eitberger told FIL TV that she sees big things for the Mixed Doubles competition.

“It was great to see this mixed team relay go well for us today,” she said. “It was great to show everyone that this new event could be one of the best competitions out there!”

For the Americans, there was a bit of a learning curve with Mueller and Haugsjaa competing in their first relay.

“It was a lot of fun and definitely a bit nerve wracking for us,” Haugsjaa said after the race. “We’ve never done a relay before but it worked out really well! We’re really happy!”

Results: