The 30-year-old double Olympic gold medallist is this season's overall World Cup leader with pusher Melissa Lotholz, while she also made history this campaign by becoming the first to drive an all female team in the men's four man competition.

She will face fierce competition from American defending champion Elana Meyers Taylor, however, who bounced back from a spell out due to concussion with victory at the World Cup in St Moritz earlier this month.

Meyers Taylor, who will be pushed by Lauren Gibbs, missed four World Cup races due to her injury but her victory in Switzerland will give her hope of defending the title she won with Cherrelle Garrett in Winterberg in Germany last year.

Home hopes will rest with Austria's Christina Hengster, who has managed four podium finishes with Sanne Dekker in what has been her best World Cup season to date.

The women's event will begin the Championships tomorrow, with the opening two runs of their competition. 

On Saturday (February 13) the men's two man will get underway with their first two runs, and South Korea's World Cup leaders Won Yun-jong and Seo Young-woo will be among the ones to watch.

They will face competition from Germany's defending champions Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis, who won the first three World Cup races of the season before a strained thigh muscle suffered by Friedrich saw the duo tumble down the leaderboard in later events.

Latvia's Oskars Melbardis and Daumants Dreiskens, who finished second behind Friedrich at both the European and World Championships last year, will also be in the frame as the overall World Cup champions.

The third and final runs in the women's competition are also set for Saturday, with the men's competition concluding on Sunday (February 14), when a team event will also take place.

The Championships will then take a short break before the men's and women's skeleton on February 18 and 19 respectively, and the start of the men's four man on February 20.