German Tatjana Huefner wins gold in women’s luge

Tatjana Huefner never relinquished her first place position as she earned her first Olympic gold medal in women’s luge at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Vancouver.

Huefner, who improved on her bronze medal finish in Torino 2006, owned three of the top four race times in the competition.

Nina Reithmayer, of Austria, collected her first medal Olympic medal, shrugging off a slow start in her fourth run to finish with silver. The 25-year-old was behind the pace of German bronze medalist Natalie Geisenberg, before picking it up a notch in the latter part of her fourth race to finish second.

Meanwhile Geisenberg, who is competing in her first Olympics, was able to edge out Russia’s Tatiana Ivanova to finish third.

Leading up to this event, Germany had swept the past two Olympic women’s single’s events in Torino and Salt Lake City but Reithmayer was able to change that as she improved on her eight place finish in Torino.

Believed to be Canada’s best chance at a medal, 22-year-old Alex Gough was never able to adjust to the shortened track and it showed in her sledding as she finished 18th.

Following the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, the women’s track was made 800ft shorter which Canadian women struggled to get used to.

Regan Lauscher was Canada’s best luger finishing 15th while Regina, Saskatchewan native Meghan Simister was 25th.

About this article

By: Amit Amann
Posted: Feb 16 2010 8:19 pm
Edition:
Filed under: Winter Games
Topics: