Historical for Wendl/Arlt
German lugers succeed in Olympic hat-trick
2/9/2022 3:13 p.m
In November, a trip to the Olympic toboggan run turned into a disaster for Tobias Wendl and Arlt – now they are making history in China. The German doubles goes to gold, silver goes to Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken. Of course, this has an effect on the medal table at the Winter Games.
Just one day after Natalie Geisenberger’s historic triumph, doubles Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt also made Olympic luge history. The duo drove to the third gold medal in a row and, with their fifth Olympic victory at the Winter Games, caught up with the German record holders Geisenberger and Claudia Pechstein. Silver went to Thuringia’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, who made the first German doubles success since 1992 perfect. Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller from Austria won bronze.
With a start (7.035 seconds) and a track record (58.255), the veterans set an example in the first run. However, in the end they were only 0.045 seconds ahead of Eggert/Bennecken and could not afford to make a mistake in the final. The duo shot clean, ended up 0.099 seconds ahead of their teammates – and also ensured that the German team now leads the medal table in Beijing with five gold medals. Most recently, Stefan Krauße/Jan Behrendt and Yves Mankel/Thomas Rudolph ensured a German double success in Albertville.
Eggert/Benecken failed again at the Olympic gold project. The duo had traveled to the games again as reigning world champions and overall World Cup winners, but after bronze in Pyeongchang 2018, nothing really came of it. Wendl/Arlt followed a different plan and, like Natalie Geisenberger, came to the games in top form. Bayern had only won the eighth World Cup in Winterberg, and a lot had gone wrong at the beginning of the season.
Unforgotten is the trip to the Olympic track in China in November, when Arlt tested false positive for the corona virus. The 34-year-old reported, among other things, about cockroaches in the quarantine hotel. “These experiences have helped to improve the overall situation. The quarantine hotel is better now, but we had the worst experiences, it can’t get any worse,” said Arlt.