Rupert STAUDINGER

NATIONALITY SWITCH
Born in Germany to a German father and British mother, he initially competed for the German youth team in doubles with Marcel Engljahringer. Before the 2015/16 season, when it became apparent that he would not make it to the senior level, he utilised his dual citizenship to switch nationalities to Great Britain, where he began competing in the singles.

However, he discovered competing for Britain is a different experience than with the German squad, especially as the squad is entirely self-funded. "I'm basically doing a lot of my athlete training stuff, working on my sled, organizing with my coach and coordinating things myself. We don’t have a physio, we don’t have a lot of money to spend on hotels and flights, so we kind of try to keep it cheap. Of course, it puts a lot of stress on your mind and body." (fr.de, 9 Feb 2018; slidingonice.com, 22 June 2020)

IN MEMORY
Has dedicated his performance at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games to his teammate and mentor AJ Rosen (GBR), who died from cancer in December 2021 at age 37. Staudinger will wear a helmet that says, "rest in peace AJ" to memorialise the three-time Olympian. "He had such a massive impact on my career, and I think I definitely would not have made it to the last Olympic Winter Games without him." (eurosport.com, 26 Jan 2022)

© Data by Sports Data Warehouse

Became the second youngest British luger to compete at the Olympic Winter Games at PyeongChang 2018 (20 years 210 days), after Paul Hix in Lillehammer 1994 (19 years 344 days)

One top-20 World Cup Singles result, a 17th-place finish in Winterberg in 2019/20.