Alex Gruber

	Alex Gruber
nation	Italy
birthday	December 21, 1992
place of birth	Bolzano
size	176 cm
Weight	72 kg
Career
discipline	Single seater
society	ASV Villanders
National squad	since 2009
status	active
Medal table
Natural Track Luge World Championships
European Natural Track Luge Championships
Natural track tobogganing Junior World Championships
Natural track toboggan junior European Championship
	Placements in the Natural Track Luge World Cup
Debut in the World Cup	January 10, 2010
World Cup victories	11
Overall World Cup ES	2. ( 2014/15 , 2015/16 , 2017/18 , 2018/19 )
	last change: May 7, 2020

Alex Gruber (born December 21, 1992 in Bolzano ) is an Italian natural track toboggan runner . He comes from Villandro in South Tyrol and has been competing in the World Cup since the 2009/2010 season . His biggest success so far was the world championship title in the men's singles in 2017 and 2019 . The other greatest successes include 11 World Cup victories, a junior world and European championship title each in the men's singles, a world championship in the team competition and a silver and bronze medal in the singles at world championships .

Career

At an early age he was able to learn toboggan with his brothers in the family. In 2002 he went tobogganing, but in 2004 he switched to natural track and was able to win all races in the youth categories. Gruber started in the Intercontinental Cup for the first time in the 2006/2007 season and achieved his first top 10 result in the next winter. During this time he also became a member of the regional squad. In the 2008/2009 season, he made it onto the podium in all five races and won two of them, with which he won the IC Cup overall standings and made it to the Italian national team.

Gruber has been competing in the World Cup since the 2009/2010 season . He finished his first race on January 10, 2010 in Umhausen in seventh position. A week later he took part in the 2010 European Championship in St. Sebastian , his first title fight in the general class, and missed the bronze medal in the single-seater by just three hundredths of a second. Together with Renate Gietl , Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara , he won the silver medal in the team competition in Team Italy I. In the World Cup he achieved his first podium finish after two further top 10 results with third place at the season finale in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , which made him ninth in the overall standings . At the end of January Gruber achieved second place in the single seater behind his compatriot Hannes Clara at the Junior World Championships in Nova Ponente . In the Intercontinental Cup this winter he achieved second place overall behind his brother Florian Gruber with two victories.

In the 2010/2011 season during the World Cup race in Gsies Gruber started with a shoulder injury. Gruber did not take part in the 2011 World Championships in Umhausen because he was barely able to qualify. At the European Junior Championships 2011 in Laas , Gruber won the gold medal in the single seater. At the World Cup race in Unterammergau , he was surprisingly able to win his first victory in front of compatriot Anton Blasbichler in a hundredth of a thriller, and at the following season finale in Olang he was fourth, placing him twelfth in the overall World Cup.

In the 2011/2012 World Cup season , Gruber was on the podium twice, second in the opening race in Latzfons and third in the season finale in Umhausen. He narrowly missed the podium twice in fourth place. With these results he reached third place in the overall World Cup behind Patrick Pigneter and Hannes Clara. At the Junior World Championships 2012 in Latsch , Gruber won the gold medal in the single-seater as in the previous year at the Junior European Championships.

Gruber started the following season with a shoulder dislocation. After this was healed to some extent, he competed in the World Cup races again. Except for a second place at the World Cup race in Kindberg, however, he was unable to achieve any further podium finishes. At the world championship in Deutschnofen , however, he was able to achieve 3rd place and in the team competition he won the world championship with the Italian team.

In the 2013/2014 season he made it onto the podium twice in the World Cup. At the European Championships in Umhausen he was also third. Gruber injured himself during official training at the World Cup race in Olang. After a repeated shoulder dislocation and two cuts, he had to end the season early. Two months later he was operated on on the shoulder and was able to devote the entire preparation time to building muscles.

During the 2014/2015 World Cup season , Gruber began studying wood construction at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences . The season was very successful for him as he finished on the podium in almost every race. He was also able to celebrate his second World Cup victory in Deutschnofen. At the world championships in St. Sebastian he was also able to crown himself as vice world champion. In the end he was also second in the overall World Cup behind his compatriot Patrick Pigneter .

The 2015/2016 season was like the previous season refilled by many podium finishes. In Deutschnofen he was able to repeat his win from last year. He fought most of the duels with his teammates and with the Austrian competition. At the European Championships in Passeier, he just missed third place. After several podium places, he was able to look forward to second place in the overall World Cup, as in the previous season.

In the 2016/2017 World Cup season, the international FIL Association introduced new rules for sports equipment. After initial difficulties with the material change, Gruber was able to establish himself again and for the third time in a row he won the World Cup race in Deutschnofen. At its third World Cup in Romania, the organizer's high temperatures and rain were fatal. After the first race, Gruber was able to take the lead. The two scheduled races were canceled on the following day, which resulted in Gruber becoming world champions. In the fight for the overall World Cup, Gruber was able to achieve, after the victory in Nova Ponente , twice the 2nd place in Moscow and twice the 3rd place in Latsch and Umhausen, the 3rd place behind Kammerlander and Pignerter .

successes

World championships

Deutschnofen 2013 : 1st team, 3rd singles
St. Sebastian 2015 : 2nd single seater
Vatra Dornei 2017 : 1st singles, 2nd team
Latzfons 2019 : 1st singles, 1st team

European championships

St. Sebastian 2010 : 4th singles, 2nd team
Nowouralsk 2012 : 5th team, 6th singles
Umhausen 2014 : 1st team, 3rd singles
Passeier 2016 : 1st team, 4th singles
Obdach 2018 : 2nd single seater, 2nd team
Moscow 2020 : 1st team, 3rd singles

Junior World Championships

Nova Ponente 2010 : 2nd single seater
Latsch 2012 : 1st single-seater

Junior European Championships

Longiarü 2009 : 21st single seater
Laas 2011 : 1st single-seater

Overall World Cup

4 × 2nd overall place in the single-seater in the seasons 2014/15 , 2015/16 , 2017/18 , 2018/19

2 × 3rd overall place in the single-seater in the 2011/12 , 2016/17 seasons

35 podium places, including 11 wins:

date	place	country
February 13, 2011	Unterammergau	Germany
January 11, 2015	Deutschnofen	Italy
February 1, 2016	Deutschnofen	Italy
29th January 2017	Deutschnofen	Italy
January 14, 2018	Passeier Valley	Italy
January 28, 2018	Deutschnofen	Italy
December 16, 2018	Kühtai	Austria
20th January 2019	Moscow	Russia
January 27, 2019	Deutschnofen	Italy
January 11, 2020	Passeier Valley	Italy
19th January 2020	Vatra Dornei	Romania

Web links

Commons : Alex Gruber - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Alex Gruber in the database of the International Luge Federation
Alex Gruber ( Memento from January 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )} at the Italian Winter Sports Association (Italian)

personal data
SURNAME	Gruber, Alex
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian natural track toboggan runner
DATE OF BIRTH	December 21, 1992
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bolzano , Italy