Alex Gruber

Alex Gruber ( born December 21, 1992, Bolzano ) is an Italian natural track luge. He won the silver medal in the team competition at the European Championships in 2010, was 2011 Junior European champion and 2012 World Junior Champion in the single-seater. In the World Cup he has so far achieved a victory in the 2011/2012 season third overall in the single-seater.

Career

Gruber started in the 2006/2007 season for the first time in the Intercontinental and reached the following winter his first top-10 result. In the 2008/2009 season he drove in all five races on the podium and won two of them, which he superior to the victory in the IC Cup Total Score secured and managed to climb into the Italian national team. In his first junior European Championship in February 2009, he came after a botched first run but only on place 21

Since the 2009/2010 season Gruber starts in the World Cup. His first race on January 10, 2010 in Umhausen he finished seventh position. A week later, he took part in the European Championships 2010 in St. Sebastian, his first title fight in the general class, in part, missing the bronze medal in singles only three hundredths of a second. Together with Renate Gietl, Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara he won the silver medal in the team competition in Italy I team. The end of January Gruber scored at the Junior World Cup in German oven second place in the single-seater behind compatriot Hannes Clara. He was also 2010 Italian Junior Champion in the single-seater, which he succeeded in 2011. In the World Cup he scored after two more top-10 results, finishing third at the season finale in Garmisch -Partenkirchen his first podium result of which he was ninth in the overall standings. In Intercontinental he reached this winter with two wins second place overall.

At the 2011 World Championships in Obergurgl Gruber did not participate; even at the first four World Cup race of the season 2010/2011 he was not at the start. In the Junior European Championship 2011 in Laas Gruber won the gold medal in the single-seater. A week later, on 13 February 2011, he celebrated his first World Cup victory in Unterammergau. In the subsequent season finale in Olang he was fourth, with which he occupied twelfth place in the World Cup.

In the World Cup season 2011/2012 Gruber stood on the podium twice, second in the season opener at Latzfons and third place at the season finale in Obergurgl. Other times he missed the podium in fourth just barely. With these results he reached the third place in the overall World Cup behind Patrick Pigneter and Hannes Clara. At the Junior World Championship 2012 in Laces Gruber won as last year at the Junior World Championships gold medal in the single-seater. Two weeks later he was at the European Championships 2012 in Novouralsk sixth in single-seaters and fifth in the team competition.

Achievements

European Championships

  • St. Sebastian 2010: 4 seater, 2nd team
  • Novouralsk 2012: 6 seater, 5 team

Junior World Championships

  • German stove 2010: 2 seater
  • Laces 2012: first single-seater

European Junior Championships

  • Longiaru 2009: 21 seater
  • Laas 2011: first single-seater

World Cup

  • Season 2011/2012: 3 single-seater World Cup
  • 4 podiums, including one victory:
FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 2010 Sankt Sebastian, Styria Deutschnofen Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali
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