ALTENBERG, Germany (AP) — Julia Taubitz spent four months chasing another World Cup title. The German sliding superstar won it by about the slimmest possible margin.
The Olympic champion is the women’s World Cup luge singles champion once again, clinching her fifth consecutive title and sixth overall on Sunday with a second-place finish in the season finale at Altenberg.
Merle Fraebel of Germany won the race, and Taubitz needed a second-place finish to clinch the World Cup title. She got it, holding off third-place finisher Kendija Aparjode of Latvia by just 0.006 seconds; that’s about 25 times faster than a typical blink of an eye.
But it was enough.
“Today was a perfect day,” Taubitz said. “It was the most exciting overall World Cup victory of my career.”
Taubitz finished the season with 634 points, four more than Fraebel. Germany’s Lisa Schulte finished the season third, and Summer Britcher of the U.S. ended the season fourth in the overall standings.
It was Britcher’s best season finish since she placed third overall in 2018-19.
Men’s singles
Germany’s Felix Loch won the season finale, his 56th World Cup victory and tying him with Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler for the most in men’s singles history.
Loch, an eight-time World Cup overall champion, held off Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller for the record-tying win. Austria’s David Gleirscher was third.
Team relay
Austria won the final team relay of the season, with Italy second and Latvia third. The U.S. did not have a team in the relay, since Britcher was the only American slider taking place in the World Cups after the Olympics.
Teams need a men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles team to be part of a relay entry.
Final medal counts
Sunday’s World Cup luge finale represented the end of the major international sliding season.
Germany took 149 major international sliding medals — bobsled, skeleton and luge races at the World Cup and Olympic level — this season, which nearly matched the total from the rest of the world combined.
Austria won 57 sliding medals this winter, and the U.S. won 26.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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