Three new record Olympians
German luge team is unbeatable at the Olympics
2/10/2022 3:32 p.m
The German lugers are guaranteed gold at the Olympic Winter Games: after men, women and the doubles, the team relay also wins gold. Three gold medal winners also become German record Olympians.
The German lugers finished the Beijing Winter Games with the best record in history and crowned Natalie Geisenberger as Germany’s record Olympic champion. After the team triumph, the 34-year-old is a six-time luge gold medalist. The doubles Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt also won the Winter Games for the sixth time. Single-seater Johannes Ludwig celebrated his third Olympic victory with the team gold. Silver went to Austria, bronze won Latvia.
However, the measure of things at the Yanqing ice track north of Beijing were the unbeatable German lugers. With the maximum gold balance and two silver medals, the team of head coach Norbert Loch delivered an even better performance than at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Geisenberger, who won bronze in Vancouver in 2010, finally left Claudia Pechstein behind with the final team gold. The five-time speed skating Olympic champion was also overtaken by Wendl/Arlt in the all-time record.
Since the team competition was introduced in 2014, only the German relay has won – always with Geisenberger and the Wendl/Arlt duo. Felix Loch cheered at the premiere in Sochi. In Pyeongchang and now in China, the Thuringian Ludwig was the better single-seater.
At the National Sliding Center in Yanqing north of Beijing, Latvia led the way from among the medal contenders with a track record of 3:04.354 minutes. Austria countered before the German quartet reduced the best time to 3:03.406 minutes thanks to a fantastic run by Wendl/Arlt and was ultimately 0.080 seconds ahead of the Alpine nation.