From Deutschnofen, ITA
(February 23, 2025) – The 2024/2025 FIL Natural Track World Cup for women’s luge came to a conclusion on Sunday in Deutschnofen and as it had 57 previous times over the history of the tour: With Evelin Lanthaler sliding to victory.
Lanthaler, who had already clinched the World Cup title coming into the race weekend, was the final woman off the top in the first heat. As she had done so many times previously, she slid to a large lead in the heat, this time ahead of teammate Daniela Mittermair. In third after the first heat was Austria’s Tina Unterberger, who like Lanthaler was making the final start of her World Cup career.
In the second heat, Italy’s Nadine Staffler slid to the lead from sixth place. She held off Jenny Castiglioni and Riccarda Ruetz to get a look at the podium, but Unterberger took the lead from Staffler by nearly three quarters of a second.
Unterberger’s slide put her on the podium in her final race. Mittermair, on her home track, then took over with a second effort that was .03 slower than Unterberger’s but enough to hold onto her position with Lanthaler to go.
Lanthaler just needed one final clean run in Italy to clinch her 58th and final World Cup gold medal. As she’s done so many times before, she put down another safe but quick run, more than enough to take gold over Mittermair by a full second, with Unterberger in third.
Lanthaler ended her career on a 35-race winning streak and won 46 of her last 47 races.
Mittermair’s silver was her second straight and fourth of the season, while Unterberger’s bronze was her fourth medal of the season.
Staffler was fourth, Ruetz fifth, and Castiglioni sixth.
Canada’s Nadja Loder was 11th.
Lanthaler finished the season with a perfect 700 points, 220 ahead of Unterberger. It’s Lanthaler’s ninth World Cup title to go with her five World Championship victories.
Unterberger finishes her career with eight seasons in the top three, with the 2024/2025 season tying a career-best second .
Unterberger edged out Mittermair, who finished third on the season, 60 points ahead of Ruetz in fourth and Staffler in fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Evelin Lanthaler | ITA | 15 | 16.51 | 16.62 | 55.58 | 56.06 | 1:51.64 |
| 2 | Daniela Mittermair | ITA | 13 | 16.67 | 16.65 | 56.15 | 56.49 | 1:52.64 |
| 3 | Tina Unterberger | AUT | 14 | 16.92 | 16.88 | 56.78 | 56.46 | 1:53.24 |
| 4 | Nadine Staffler | ITA | 11 | 16.97 | 16.99 | 57.01 | 56.97 | 1:53.98 |
| 5 | Riccarda Ruetz | AUT | 12 | 16.98 | 16.79 | 56.88 | 57.15 | 1:54.03 |
| 6 | Jenny Castiglioni | ITA | 9 | 16.96 | 17.00 | 56.97 | 57.25 | 1:54.22 |
| 7 | Lisa Walch | GER | 10 | 17.16 | 17.02 | 57.33 | 57.78 | 1:55.11 |
| 8 | Naomi Thöni | AUT | 18 | 17.15 | 17.29 | 57.92 | 58.33 | 1:56.25 |
| 9 | Carina Miller | AUT | 2 | 17.34 | 17.47 | 58.22 | 58.79 | 1:57.01 |
| 10 | Patricija Urbanc | CRO | 7 | 18.09 | 18.22 | 61.25 | 61.44 | 2:02.69 |
| 11 | Nadja Loder | CAN | 3 | 19.04 | 19.00 | 66.48 | 66.87 | 2:13.35 |
| 12 | Lotte Musler | ITA | 4 | 17.06 | 57.04 | |||
| 13 | Tina Stuffer | ITA | 5 | 17.11 | 57.74 | |||
| 14 | Hannah Nagele | AUT | 6 | 17.64 | 58.25 | |||
| 15 | Emma Reutz | AUT | 1 | 17.57 | 59.27 |