Luge is one of the seven Olympic sports currently contested at the Winter Olympic Games.[1] It has been a constant presence in the Olympic program since its introduction at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria,[2] in the form of three events: men's singles, women's singles, and doubles.[lower-alpha 1] A mixed team relay event was contested for the first time at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[4]
History
German luger Georg Hackl is the overall medal leader in the sport, having collected a total of five medals (three golds and two silvers) in the men's singles, during the six Winter Games in which he competed (1988–2006).[5] Following his victory at the 1992 Winter Olympics, Hackl was the first male luger to successfully defend an Olympic title, in 1994.[5] By repeating this feat in Nagano 1998, he joined two other men (Swedish figure skater Gillis Grafström and German skier Ulrich Wehling) and two women (Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie and American speed skater Bonnie Blair) who had won the same individual event in three consecutive Olympic Games. Hackl was also the first-ever Olympian to win at least one medal in five consecutive Olympics.[5] This effort was matched by Armin Zöggeler of Italy, who won his fifth straight Olympic medal (bronze) in the men's singles at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. In 2002, Zöggeler outperformed Hackl and prevented him from reaching a unique fourth successive gold medal. Four years later, in Turin, Zöggeler became the second male luger to win back-to-back titles. Ten-time World Cup champion Markus Prock of Austria never fulfilled his success at Olympic level: in 1992 and 1994, Prock beat Georg Hackl to the World Cup title,[6] but ended up losing the Olympic gold medal to the German.
In the women's event, Germany's Silke Kraushaar leads the medal count with three, one of each color. Steffi Martin and Sylke Otto—at 36, the oldest female individual gold medalist at the Winter Games[7]—are the only lugers with two gold medals in their career. Ortrun Enderlein, representing the Unified Team of Germany, was the first woman to win the singles event in 1964. She was on the verge of defending her title at the 1968 Grenoble Games, having the best overall time after all the runs, but was disqualified together with fellow countrywomen Anna-Maria Müller (2nd) and Angela Knösel (4th) when it was discovered that the runners in their sleds had been illegally heated before the runs.[8] Müller made up for this by taking the gold medal at the following Games, in Sapporo, Japan.
The most successful pair in the history of the Olympic doubles event was Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt, who represented East Germany in 1988 and the reunified German Olympic team from 1992 to 1998, winning four medals: two golds, one silver, and one bronze. East Germany's Hans Rinn and Norbert Hahn, and Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, are the other pairs to have won two times, both of them in consecutive Olympics. In 1972, two gold medals were awarded to an East German (Horst Hörnlein and Reinhard Bredow) and an Italian pair (Paul Hildgartner and Walter Plaikner), who finished with exactly the same time. To prevent similar situations in future Olympics, the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course introduced timing equipment that measured accurately to one thousandth of a second, to replace the old equipment that measured in hundredths of a second.[9]
As of the 2010 Winter Olympics, 117 medals (40 gold, 38 silver, and 39 bronze) have been awarded to 105 lugers (53 in the singles and 52 in the doubles) representing nine National Olympic Committees (NOC).[10] German lugers—representing the Unified Team of Germany (1964), West Germany (1968–1988), East Germany (1968–1988), and Germany (1992–2010)—have dominated this sport, collecting a total of 70 medals (27 gold, 22 silver, and 21 bronze).[10] There were seven occasions when a single NOC filled the podium with its athletes and in all of them they were German. After the Vancouver Games, Germany is the current medal-leading NOC in the sport with 31 medals (13 gold, 10 silver, and 8 bronze), surpassing East Germany's 29 medals.[10]
As the Italian luge team is completely recruited from South Tyrol, nearly all medal winners, except those from Soviet Union, Russia, United States and Latvia, are ethnically Germanic.
Medalists
Men's singles
Women's singles
Doubles
Team relay
Statistics
Medal leaders
Athletes that have won at least two medals are listed below. Medalists are sorted first by the total number of medals, then successively by the number of gold, silver and bronze medals. If a tie is still verified, medalists are ordered chronologically by their first medal.
Men
| Athlete |
NOC |
Olympics |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| Zöggeler, ArminArmin Zöggeler |
 Italy (ITA) |
1994–2014 |
2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Hackl, GeorgGeorg Hackl |
 West Germany (FRG)
Germany (GER) |
1988–2002 |
3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Krausse, StefanStefan Krausse |
 East Germany (GDR)
Germany (GER) |
1988–1998 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Behrendt, JanJan Behrendt |
East Germany (GDR)
Germany (GER) |
1988–1998 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Bonsack, KlausKlaus Bonsack |
 United Team of Germany (EUA) |
1964–1972 |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Loch, FelixFelix Loch |
Germany (GER) |
2010–2014 |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Köhler, ThomasThomas Köhler |
United Team of Germany (EUA) |
1964–1968 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Hildgartner, PaulPaul Hildgartner |
Italy (ITA) |
1972–1984 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Linger, AndreasAndreas Linger |
 Austria (AUT) |
2006–2014 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Linger, WolfgangWolfgang Linger |
Austria (AUT) |
2006–2014 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Demchenko, AlbertAlbert Demchenko |
 Russia (RUS) |
2006–2014 |
0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Prock, MarkusMarkus Prock |
Austria (AUT) |
1992–2002 |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Šics, AndrisAndris Šics |
 Latvia (LAT) |
2010–2014 |
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Šics, JurisJuris Šics |
Latvia (LAT) |
2010–2014 |
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Rinn, HansHans Rinn |
East Germany (GDR) |
1976–1980 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Hahn, NorbertNorbert Hahn |
East Germany (GDR) |
1976–1980 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Wendl, TobiasTobias Wendl |
Germany (GER) |
2014 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Arlt, TobiasTobias Arlt |
Germany (GER) |
2014 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Hoffmann, JörgJörg Hoffmann |
East Germany (GDR) |
1984–1988 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Pietzsch, JochenJochen Pietzsch |
East Germany (GDR) |
1984–1988 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Müller, JensJens Müller |
East Germany (GDR)
Germany (GER) |
1988–1998 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Leitner, PatricPatric Leitner |
Germany (GER) |
2002–2010 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Resch, AlexanderAlexander Resch |
Germany (GER) |
2002–2010 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Raffl, HansjörgHansjörg Raffl |
Italy (ITA) |
1992–1994 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Huber, NorbertNorbert Huber |
Italy (ITA) |
1992–1994 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Thorpe, ChrisChris Thorpe |
 United States (USA) |
1998–2002 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Grimmette, MarkMark Grimmette |
United States (USA) |
1998–2002 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Martin, BrianBrian Martin |
United States (USA) |
1998–2002 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
|
Women
| Athlete |
NOC |
Olympics |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| Geisenberger, NatalieNatalie Geisenberger |
Germany (GER) |
2010–2014 |
2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Kraushaar, SilkeSilke Kraushaar |
Germany (GER) |
1998–2006 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Hüfner, TatjanaTatjana Hüfner |
Germany (GER) |
2006–2014 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Martin, SteffiSteffi Martin |
East Germany (GDR) |
1984–1988 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Otto, SylkeSylke Otto |
Germany (GER) |
2002–2006 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Schumann, MargitMargit Schumann |
East Germany (GDR) |
1972–1976 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Rührold, UteUte Rührold |
East Germany (GDR) |
1972–1976 |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Niedernhuber, BarbaraBarbara Niedernhuber |
Germany (GER) |
1998–2002 |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Erdmann, SusiSusi Erdmann |
Germany (GER) |
1992–1994 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Neuner, AngelikaAngelika Neuner |
Austria (AUT) |
1992–1998 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Medals per year
| × |
NOC did not exist |
# |
Number of medals won by the NOC |
– |
NOC did not win any medals |
Medal sweep events
These are events in which athletes from one NOC won all three medals.
- * In addition to sweeping the podium, the country also had the fourth place finisher.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Technically, the doubles event is considered a mixed event, open for male, female and mixed duos, but since its debut it has been traditionally entered only by male pairs.[3]
References
- Medalists
- Citations
External links
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Soviet Union (URS) 
