12 years after the luge World Cup is Italian again! In Winterberg, Germany, in a sport where the first language on the official federation website is German, Italy plants the flag thanks to a magical and masterful Dominik Fischnaller, who touches the pinnacle of his career and at 30 can finally lift the coveted crystal ball to the sky!

His trophy case includes an Olympic bronze medal and three third-place finishes at the World Championships. Now he can put the trophy in his trophy case that allows him to go down in history forever, with the hope that the best is yet to come: if indeed a track is built in Cortina d'Ampezzo for the 2026 Olympics, then one can dream big for the home edition of the Winter Games.

The last Italian national team to win the luge World Cup was Armin Zoeggeler in 2011: it was even his tenth title, current coach of the Italian national team and a longtime mentor of Fischnaller. For Italy, this is the 20th crystal ball ever in the men's singles, also considering the 1981 tied triumph with Ernst Haspinger and Paul Hildgartner.