From Yanqing, CHN
(February 23, 2025) – The 2024/2025 FIL World Cup Team Relay season came down to the final run of the year, and over four minutes of racing, Austria effectively won the season title by .165.
The race kicked off with China’s first foray into the relay event this season. The team put down a relatively clean set of runs to take the lead, a lead they would hold as Romania could not match their four-run time.
The United States was next. Ashley Farquharson kicked the team’s effort off with what would be the quickest run by a women’s luge athlete in the race. Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander, Tucker West, and Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby all were relatively clean and quick as the Americans took the lead by nearly six seconds over China.
Italy was next, and while the team had some cleaner runs, they were unable to match the pace of the Americans.
After Ukraine were unable to put together four clean runs it was Latvia’s turn to try to unseat Team USA. The team got off to a good start. While Kendija Aparjode had a bit of trouble early in her run, Martins Bots and Roberts Plume closed the gap, and Kristers Aparjods slid to a lead at the handoff to Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma.
Upite and Kaluma were clean through most of their run and looked to be on their way to a medal run. But a big issue late in their run tipped them over, and while they were quickly back on their runners all of the speed was gone. The team fell behind the Americans.
That put the United States on the podium with only Austria and Germany to go.
Lisa Schulte started things off for the Austrians and found herself a tenth behind Farquharson. But the team of Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl put the Austrians up, with a lead that neither Jonas Müller or Selina Egle and Lara Kipp were going to give up.
The final runs of the 2024/2025 season were taken by Germany, who had been racing neck-and-neck with Austria all season. Whichever team out-slid the other would win the title.
Merle Fräbel led off for the Germans and was just .007 ahead of Schulte at the start. The handoff went to men’s doubles champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, who gave Germany a substantial lead.
Max Langenhan opened the lead up to nearly a full second with the final run being taken by Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal. The duo were quick early, but had troubles late in their run. Their lead slipped away and Germany fell behind Austria at the line by .165 in second.
The win for Austria was their third of the season, while Germany took silver for the fourth time in five races. USA’s bronze was their second of the year.
In the final standings, Austria won the season title by just five points ahead of Germany. Latvia’s fourth place finish was enough to stay ahead of the United States by 20 points for third overall, with the United States fourth and Italy fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Women | M-Doubles | Men | W-Doubles |
| 1 | Lisa Schute / Steu & Kindl / Jonas Müller / Egle & Kipp | AUT | 7 | 63.221 | 2:06.275 | 3:08.560 | 4:11.933 |
| 2 | Merle Fräbel / Wendl & Arlt / Max Langenhan / Degenhardt & Rosenthal | GER | 8 | 63.214 | 2:04.780 | 3:07.692 | 4:12.098 |
| 3 | Ashley Farquharson / Digregorio & Hollaner / West / Forgan & Kirkby | USA | 3 | 63.126 | 2:06.377 | 3:09.277 | 4:13.535 |
| 4 | Kendija Aparjode / Bots & Plume / Kristers Aparjods / Upite & Kaluma | LAT | 6 | 63.943 | 2:06.673 | 3:08.728 | 4:14.164 |
| 5 | Verena Hofer / Rieder & Kainzwaldner / Dominik Fischnaller / Vötter & Oberhofer | ITA | 4 | 63.702 | 2:06.912 | 3:09.484 | 4:14.519 |
| 6 | Huilan Hu / Jubayi & Hou / Zhenyu Bao / Gulijienaiti & Zhao | CHN | 1 | 67.394 | 2:11.104 | 3:16.035 | 4:21.696 |
| 7 | Corina Buzatoiu / Handaric & Motzca / Valentin Cretu / Stramaturaru & Manolescu | ROU | 2 | 63.867 | 2:12.173 | 3.15.737 | 4:21.793 |
| 8 | Yulianna Tunytska / Hoi & Kachmar / Anton Dukach / Stetskiv & Mokh | UKR | 5 | 64.361 | 2:10.615 | 3:14.870 | 4:21.879 |