1968 Winter Olympics / Luge

Luge at the 1968 Winter Olympics
information
venue	Villard-de-Lans
Competition venue	Piste de luge
Nations	14th
Athletes	85 (26 women and 59 men)
date	11-13 February 1968
decisions	3
← Innsbruck 1964 Sapporo 1972 →

At the X. Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble in 1968 , three luge competitions took place. The natural track in Villard-de-Lans was exactly 1000 meters long, had 14 bends and overcame a height difference of 110 meters. All competitions had to be postponed or even shortened several times due to the warm temperatures.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	GDR	1	1	1	3
2	Austria	1	1	-	2
3	Italy	1	-	-	1
4th	BR Germany	-	1	2	3

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Single seater men	Manfred Schmid	Thomas Koehler	Klaus-Michael Bonsack
Single seater women	Erika Lechner	Christa jewelry	Angelika Dünhaupt
Two-seater men	Klaus-Michael Bonsack , Thomas Köhler	Manfred Schmid , Ewald Walch	Wolfgang Winkler , Fritz Nachmann

Results

(all runtimes in seconds, total times in minutes)

Single seater men

Olympic champion 1964 : Thomas Köhler (GDR / EUA).

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	total
1	AUT	Manfred Schmid	57.16	57.73	57.59	2: 52.48
2	GDR	Thomas Koehler	57.68	57.47	57.51	2: 52.66
3	GDR	Klaus-Michael Bonsack	57.90	57.63	57.80	2: 53.33
4th	POLE	Zbigniew Gawior	57.55	58.35	57.61	2: 53.51
5	AUT	Josef Feistmantl	57.78	58.06	57.73	2: 53.57
6th	FRG	Hans Plenk	57.30	58.37	58.00	2: 53.67
7th	GDR	Horst Hörnlein	57.49	58.04	58.57	2: 54.10
8th	POLE	Jerzy Wojnar	58.16	58.36	58.08	2: 54.62
9	FRG	Leonhard Nagenrauft	57.87	58.45	58.39	2: 54.71
10	ITA	Emil Lechner	57.94	58.63	58.53	2: 55.10
11	FRG	Wolfgang Winkler	58.08	58.86	58.41	2: 55.35
12	ITA	Giovanni Graber	58.09	58.59	58.88	2: 55.56
14th	AUT	Helmut Thaler	58.42	59.03	58.60	2: 56.05
16	ITA	Siegfried Mair	58.22	59.51	58.45	2: 56.18
17th	FRG	Fritz Nachmann	58.54	59.05	58.82	2: 56.41
18th	ITA	Raimund Prinoth	58.80	59.16	58.89	2: 56.85
36	LIE	Werner Sele	60.92	61.27	61.69	3: 03.88
41	LIE	Simon Beck	63.52	64.54	63.59	3: 11.65

Run 1 and 2: February 11, 1968, 7:00 a.m.
Run 3: February 13, 1968, 8:00 a.m.

50 participants from 14 countries, 47 of them in the evaluation. Eliminated: Peter Kretauer (AUT), Julius Schädler (LIE), Wolfgang Scheidel (GDR).

The original schedule was as follows: first and second runs on February 8th, third run on February 10th, fourth run on February 12th.
After the first two runs there was another cancellation for February 12th. Schmid led in front of Köhler, Hörnlein, Bonsack, Plenk, Feistmantl, Gawior, Nagenrauft, Wojnar and Lechner; Thaler was in 14th place. The fourth run was scheduled for February 14th, but the track was way too soft because of the warmth. On February 15, after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Luge Federation, the decision was made that the fourth run would not be held for both men and women. Manfred Schmid had only achieved the best time in the first run.

Single seater women

Olympic champion 1964 and world champion 1967: Ortrun Enderlein (GDR / EUA).

space	country	sportswoman	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	total
1	ITA	Erika Lechner	48.76	49.39	50.51	2: 28.66
2	FRG	Christa jewelry	49.15	49.84	50.38	2: 29.37
3	FRG	Angelika Dünhaupt	49.34	49.88	50.34	2: 29.56
4th	POLE	Helena Macher	49.55	50.02	50.48	2: 30.05
5	POLE	Jadwiga Damse	49.64	50.43	50.08	2: 30.15
6th	TCH	Dana Spálenská-Beldová	49.22	50.36	50.77	2: 30.35
7th	POLE	Anna Mąka	49.69	50.05	50.66	2: 30.40
8th	FRG	Ute Gähler	49.78	49.93	50.71	2: 30.42
9	AUT	Helene Thurner	49.64	50.15	50.71	2: 30.50
10	AUT	Marlene Korthals	49.72	50.31	51.30	2: 31.33
15th	AUT	Elfriede Wäger	51.93	50.44	52.04	2: 34.41
21st	ITA	Erika Prugger	61.90	50.91	51.40	2: 44.21

Runs 1 and 2: February 11, 1968, 8:45 a.m.
Run 3: February 13, 1968, 10 a.m.

26 participants from 10 countries, 21 of them in the evaluation.

The four races were originally planned on the same days as the men's individual race (thus the first and second races planned on February 8th from 8:00 a.m.).
After 2 runs Enderlein was ahead of Müller, Lechner and Knösel. Jewelry, Dünhaupt, Macher, Beldová. Gähler and Maka; the Austrians took 11th (Thurner), 12 (Korthals) and 18 (Wäger) places (please see footnote on men's singles).
Ortrun Enderlein , Anna-Maria Müller and Angela Knösel from the GDR were in first, second and fourth place after three runs. Shortly before the start of the third run, the Polish jury chairman Lucjan Świderski carried out a stitch check by putting some snow on the side surface the ice edge of the sled put. As it melted, Świderski concluded that the runners of their sledges had heated up. This has been forbidden since 1964, since heating can save around half a second in time. Enderlein, Müller and Knösel were then disqualified by the jury. Since there was no longer a fourth run, the gold medal went to Erika Lechner, while Christa Schmuck and Angelika Dünhaupt received silver and bronze.

Two-seater men

Olympic champions 1964 : Josef Feistmantl , Manfred Stengl (AUT) / World champions 1967: Klaus-Michael Bonsack , Thomas Köhler (GDR).

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	total
1	GDR	Klaus-Michael Bonsack , Thomas Köhler	47.88	47.97	1: 35.85
2	AUT	Manfred Schmid , Ewald Walch	48.16	48.18	1: 36.34
3	FRG	Wolfgang Winkler , Fritz Nachmann	48.58	48.71	1: 37.29
4th	FRG	Hans Plenk , Bernhard Aschauer	48.70	48.91	1: 37.41
5	GDR	Horst Hörnlein , Reinhard Bredow	48.80	49.01	1: 37.81
6th	POLE	Zbigniew Gawior , Ryszard Gawior	49.01	48.84	1: 37.85
7th	AUT	Josef Feistmantl , Wilhelm Biechl	48.81	49.30	1: 38.11
8th	ITA	Giovanni Graber , Enrico Graber	49.01	49.14	1: 38.15
9	POLE	Lucjan Kudzia , Stanisław Paczka	49.09	49.08	1: 38.17
10	ITA	Ernst Mair , Siegfried Mair	49.10	49.57	1: 38.67

Runs 1 and 2: February 18, 1968, 8 a.m.

15 teams from 8 countries, 14 of them in the rating. Originally the competition should have taken place on February 15th, but due to the warm temperatures (the track was still in a desperate condition on February 17th, not even training sessions were possible) it could only be held on the last day of the competition (February 18th). be carried out.

Web links

• Luge at the 1968 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1968 Winter Olympics (PDF; 19.4 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Two runs - Manfred Schmid leads" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 13, 1968, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ «Debates continue, run postponed» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 15, 1968, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ "Schmid is now Olympic champion" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 16, 1968, p. 16 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Wolf-Sören Treusch: Olympic Winter Games 1968 in Grenoble: "Allemagne" against "East Germany" Deutschlandfunk Kultur , February 11, 2018.
5. ↑ Column 4, below: “Tobogganists keep waiting” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 18, 1968, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ↑ bottom left: «Tobogganing - last attempt»; «Kleine Zeitung», Styria edition of February 18, 1968, page 25