Johannes Ludwig starts for the BSR Rennsteig Oberhof , which is affiliated with the WSV Oberhof 05 eV . The chief police officer at the Federal Police Sports School in Bad Endorf has been luging since 1992. He completed his studies in business administration ( Bachelor of Arts ) at the University of Applied Management. He trains at the Federal Police Sports School in Bad Endorf and at the Bundeswehr Sports Promotion Group in Oberhof. In 2005 he won the overall ranking of the Junior World Cup, a year later he was third and fourth at the Junior World Championships. In the 2006/07 season , the Thuringian competed in his first season in the World Cup, finishing eleventh overall. His best results came in Park City , Calgary , and Winterberg , finishing fifth, eighth, and seventh, respectively. In the other races he was always classified in the top 20. At the 2007 World Championships in Innsbruck-Igls he finished 11th. Also in the 2007/08 season he was eleventh overall and improved his personal best to fourth place at the race in Altenberg . In 2008/09 , Ludwig confirmed this best performance by coming fourth in Whistler , and improved to eighth place overall. The 2009/10 season brought the final breakthrough to the top of the world. At World Cup races in Cesana as third place and in Oberhof as second he made his first podium places and won in Winterberg with the team relay. At the 2010 European Championships in Sigulda , he finished sixth and won the bronze medal in the team relay. After Ludwig only competed in six of the nine races in the World Cup in the 2010/11 season and only finished in the top ten once, the 2011/12 season became more successful again. At the 2012 World Championships in Altenberg , he narrowly missed out on a medal in fourth place. The following winter he got a few third places in World Cup races. At the 2013 European Championships in Oberhof, he won the bronze medal behind Felix Loch and Andi Langenhan ; also at the 2013 World Championships in Whistler.
On November 27, 2016, at the beginning of the 2016/2017 season , he achieved his first World Cup victory at the World Cup in Winterberg. In the 2017/2018 season he celebrated his greatest sporting successes at the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang . On February 11, 2018, he won the bronze medal in the single seater . He benefited from a serious driving error made by his teammate Felix Loch in the fourth run, which meant that he dropped from 1st place to 5th place, while Ludwig moved up from 5th place to bronze in the last race. As the best-placed driver in the individual races, Ludwig was seeded for the team relay in accordance with the regulations of the German Luge Association. Together with Natalie Geisenberger and the doubles Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt , Ludwig won the gold medal at the end of the luge competition in Pyeongchang. At the start of the 2018/2019 season, on November 28, 2018 in Innsbruck-Igls, he achieved his second World Cup victory when he was able to confirm his joint best time with Semjon Pawlitschenko in the first run and in the second run. In the 2019/2020 season , Ludwig achieved his third World Cup victory on January 26, 2020 at a curious World Cup in Sigulda , Latvia , when after 21st place in the first run due to difficult external conditions - the track became increasingly slower in the course of the second run - still up drove up the 1st place. Just as oddly, Ludwig also clinched his fourth World Cup victory just a week later at his home race in Oberhof . This time he even managed to move up to first place with a 24th place after the first run in constant rain. Just one day later, together with Anna Berreiter and the doubles Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, he achieved his second World Cup success in the team relay – ten years after his first triumph.
He won the first two races of the 2021/22 season on the Olympic tracks in Yanqing and Sochi . He also achieved victories in Innsbruck-Igls, Winterberg and Oberhof. One race before the end of the World Cup season, he secured victory in the overall World Cup for the first time. The biggest success of his career is winning the gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
private
Johannes Ludwig is married and lives with his wife and two children in Walsrode , Lower Saxony .
Due to his athleticism, Ludwig is one of the fastest starters in the toboggan world cup and holds the start record on seven toboggan runs (as of January 3, 2021).