Behind the wheel of a truck, Norbert Loch set off on his last business trip as toboggan head coach from Oberhof via Warsaw to Latvia. “I just felt like saying: I’ll do the trip again. It’s a nice trip,” says Loch.
The 61-year-old from Schönau am Königssee transported his team’s sleds to Latvia while his protégés traveled by plane. “Why shouldn’t the head coach drive this van? I had a lot of fun,” says Loch, “and that was another challenge for me.”
At the World Cup final this weekend, almost all of the sporting challenges of the season have already been mastered. The Saxon Julia Taubitz and the Thuringian Max Langenhan, who is now missing due to injury, won the single-seater overall World Cup and the sprint classifications early. Theoretically, the decisions are still open for the women’s and men’s doubles. It will be exciting on Sunday in Sigulda in the team relay.
Grand finale?
Loch’s team leads arch-rivals Austria by 40 points – an overall World Cup victory with the team would be the culmination of an extraordinary coaching career with a total of 119 medals at World Championships and Olympic Games. “I never counted medals, I tried to make progress with the athletes,” says Norbert Loch. But now: “Enough is enough!”
Loch was born in Friedrichroda, one of the luge strongholds of the former GDR. After the political change, he accepted the offer as Bavarian state coach in 1991. Loch has been responsible for Germany’s luge athletes for 16 years, since 2008. At the last major event, the home World Championships in Altenberg, his athletes won their 97th World Championship medal, and the team victory was their 44th World Championship gold under Loch’s direction. At the Olympics, his protégés won a total of 22 medals (13 gold, five silver and four bronze).
“I am proud to have contributed a lot to his record,” says six-time Olympic champion and nine-time world champion Natalie Geisenberger. “I started tobogganing with him. We have a lot in common. It was an incredibly great time, also thanks to Norbert.”
Loch’s son Felix, a three-time Olympic champion and 14-time world champion, made his father’s impending departure from his position as head coach public by chance in January. “I’m glad he did that,” said the father – and had a tear in his eye at the time.
Highlights? Many!
When Norbert Loch is asked about the highlights of his coaching career, he remembers one moment or another. “It’s actually difficult. There are a lot of emotional moments.”
It didn’t leave him unscathed when his son Felix became the youngest world champion in Oberhof in 2008 at the age of 18. “That was an emotional moment. I have to admit that. It was my first World Cup – and a great performance from Felix.” Two years later, the Filius became the youngest Olympic champion under dad’s wing. But there were also bitter moments: in Pyeongchang in 2018, the son made a mistake while lying on the gold course, the father consoled him and then minutes later was happy about Johannes Ludwig’s Olympic bronze.
“At home we are father and son. We never had any problems,” says the dad. “We didn’t say a word about tobogganing at home. The red line was never crossed,” the son once said. The two Lochs have managed their closely interwoven sports careers just fine.
The successor
In the future, the tobogganers will be instructed by Patric Leitner. The 47-year-old, Olympic doubles champion together with Alexander Resch in 2002, has already been appointed as the new head coach. However, Norbert Loch won’t stay out of it completely. “I will support him administratively and help him prepare for next season.”
What’s next for Norbert Loch?
In the future, he will be head of the Olympic base in his adopted homeland. “The main part of my future work will be that I will take over the base management and management for the sports of bobsleigh, tobogganing and skeleton in Berchtesgaden.”
The understanding between the athletes and the coach has recently become greater and greater. “The athletes are getting younger, I’m getting older. I’ve had to change a bit in the last few years. Society is changing, the athletes are changing. They have different demands now. You grow with them, but at some point it’s good. “
Now Norbert Loch is looking forward to the next phase of his life – which will be calmer without the constant stress of travel. He and his wife Maria bought a motorhome in March last year. First we’re heading towards Lake Garda and then to Greece: “I’ve already booked the ferry. Otherwise, Maria and I want to treat ourselves to a few nice weekends and free time.”
