Germans dominate the luge, take top two medals

Felix Loch, the two time gold medalist at the World Championships, continued his winning ways for Germany as he won the gold medal during Sunday’s men’s singles luge event.  Fellow German, David Moller, nabbed the silver medal.

This is the first time any country has won the two top medals  in luge history since East Germany swept the podium at the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan.

Italian Armin Zoggeler, gold medalist at the past two Winter Olypics, finished third.  The win gave Zoggeler his fifth medal in his Olympic career, becoming the only Italian to win a medal in five consecutive Olympic Games.

Canada’s highest placement went to Sam Edney who placed seventh in the event, a major improvement from his 19th place finish in Turin.  Canada was also represented by Jeff Christie and Ian Cockerline who finished 14th and 20th respectively.  The victory was the highest finish for Canadian lugers in Olympic history.

Zoggeler narrowly edged out Russian Albert Demtshenko, whom he did the same thing to in Torino 2006 to win the gold medal, only this time it prevented Demtshenko from winning any hardware.

Loch and Moller were the last two competitors in the medal run, Loch being the final racer, and came out of the gates with a half a second edge over the previous luger in every turn.  This is Germany’s first gold medal of the 2010 Games, and its eighth since Luge became an event at the Olympics in 1964.

About this article

By: Matt Shott
Posted: Feb 14 2010 10:12 pm
Edition:
Filed under: Winter Games
Topics: