Olympic Winter Games 2010 / Luge

Luge at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
information
venue	Whistler
Competition venue	Whistler Sliding Center
Nations	24
Athletes	107 (78 , 29 )
date	13-17 February 2010
decisions	3
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At the XXI. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , three luge competitions were held. The venue was the Whistler Sliding Center in Whistler , around 125 km north of Vancouver. The competitions were overshadowed by the fatal training accident of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Germany	2	1	2	5
2	Austria	1	1	-	2
3	Latvia	-	1	-	1
4th	Italy	-	-	1	1

American Julia Clukey in the Whistler Ice Channel

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Single seater men	Felix Hole	David Möller	Armin Zöggeler
Single seater women	Tatjana Huefner	Nina Reithmayer	Natalie Geisenberger
Two-seater	Andreas Linger , Wolfgang Linger	Andris Šics , Juris Šics	Patric Leitner , Alexander Resch

Safety discussion and fatal accident

The Whistler Sliding Center, which was specially built for the Winter Olympics, was part of the racing calendar for the first time in the Luge World Cup 2008/09 . The first competitions showed that the originally planned maximum speed of around 135 km / h was clearly exceeded. The two-time world champion from Germany, Felix Loch , achieved a speed of almost 154 km / h, which in this respect meant a new world record. No athlete had ever ridden faster on any other toboggan run. Many athletes were critical in advance of the Games, such as the German David Moeller , who commented on the speed records: "In Whistler, we are at a point, where must be rethought. Otherwise we will soon no longer have any athletes going down there. ”The Italian defending champion Armin Zöggeler also expressed similar concerns; the athletes have "reached the top" and an enormous amount is demanded.

In the training sessions for the men's singles competition, Loch's top speed was slightly improved by the Austrian Manuel Pfister , he was 0.02 km / h faster. Armin Zöggeler explained that he had not yet reached his maximum in terms of speed. He is sure that he will reach more than 155 kilometers per hour in the competitions. Other athletes estimated the speed that would be achieved in the competitions at 156 or 157 kilometers per hour.

During the final training session, the Georgian toboggan runner Nodar Kumaritashvili had a fatal accident when he hit an unprotected steel girder of the railway roof after the last bend. Kumaritashvili's death exacerbated discussions about the safety of the toboggan run that had already been held. The President of the international Luge Federation FIL , Josef Fendt , criticized the Sliding Center as too fast - especially the fact that the planned top speed of 137 kilometers per hour was exceeded by almost 20 kilometers per hour. The fatal accident did not have any consequences with regard to the schedule. A few hours later, the FIL announced that the further training sessions and the men's competition could take place as planned. However, the decision was made to change the ice profile; an additional wooden protective wall was built in the finish area and the race distances were shortened. The men started the race from the women's start, and two additional training runs were added. The ladies and doubles started from the junior start house.

Results

(all runtimes in seconds, total times in minutes)

Single seater men

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	GER	Felix Hole	48.168	48,402	48.344	48.171	3: 13.085
2	GER	David Möller	48,341	48.511	48,582	48,330	3: 13.764
3	ITA	Armin Zöggeler	48.473	48,529	48.914	48.459	3: 14.375
4th	RUS	Albert Demchenko	48,590	48,579	48.769	48,467	3: 14.405
5	GER	Andi Langenhan	48.629	48.658	48.869	48.473	3: 14.629
6th	AUT	Daniel Pfister	48,583	48.707	48.883	48,553	3: 14.726
7th	CAN	Samuel Edney	48.754	48.793	48,920	48.373	3: 14.840
8th	United States	Tony Benshoof	48.657	48.747	49.010	48.714	3: 15.128
9	AUT	Wolfgang Kindl	48.707	48.755	49.080	48.673	3: 15.215
10	AUT	Manuel Pfister	48.677	48.835	49.064	48.693	3: 15.269
17th	ITA	David Mair	48.978	48.989	49.387	48.845	3: 16.199
21st	ITA	Reinhold Rainer	48.846	49.065	49.416	49.007	3: 16.334
32	SUI	Stefan Höhener	48.728	53.838	49.559	48.713	3: 20.838

1st and 2nd run: February 13, 2010 (5:00 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.)
3rd and 4th run: February 14, 2010 (1:00 p.m. and 3:10 p.m.)

38 participants from 22 countries, all in the ranking.

 Wikinews: Vancouver: Double victory for German luge riders through Loch and Möller  - message

Single seater women

Tatjana Hüfner after winning the gold medal

space	country	sportswoman	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	GER	Tatjana Huefner	41.760	41,481	41.666	41.617	2: 46.524
2	AUT	Nina Reithmayer	41.728	41,563	41.884	41.839	2: 47.014
3	GER	Natalie Geisenberger	41.743	41.657	41,800	41.901	2: 47.101
4th	RUS	Tatiana Ivanova	41.816	41,601	41.914	41,850	2: 47.181
5	GER	Anke Wischnewski	41.785	41.685	41.894	41.889	2: 47.253
6th	RUS	Alexandra Rodionova	41.828	41.731	41.984	41.913	2: 47.456
7th	SUI	Martina Kocher	42.005	41.697	41.976	41.897	2: 47.575
8th	POLE	Ewelina Staszulonek	41.975	41.816	41.948	41.882	2: 47.621
9	LAT	Maija Tīruma	41.773	41.933	42.012	41.936	2: 47.654
10	RUS	Natalia Khorjowa	41.932	41.785	42.175	42.092	2: 47.984
12	AUT	Veronika Halder	42.015	41.881	42.078	42.143	2: 48.117
20th	ITA	Sandra Gasparini	42,339	42.161	42.881	42.621	2: 50.002

1st and 2nd run: February 15, 2010 (5:00 p.m. and 6:50 p.m.)
3rd and 4th run: February 16, 2010 (1:00 p.m. and 2:50 p.m.)

29 participants from 13 countries, 27 of them in the evaluation.

 Wikinews: Gold series of the German female luge athletes at the Olympics continues  - news

Two-seater

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	total
1	AUT	Wolfgang Linger , Andreas Linger	41,332	41.373	1: 22.705
2	LAT	Andris Šics , Juris Šics	41,420	41,549	1: 22.969
3	GER	Patric Leitner , Alexander Resch	41,566	41,474	1: 23.040
4th	ITA	Christian Oberstolz , Patrick Gruber	41,527	41,585	1: 23.112
5	GER	André Florschütz , Torsten Wustlich	41.545	41.645	1: 23.190
6th	United States	Dan Joye , Christian Niccum	41,602	41.689	1: 23.291
7th	CAN	Chris Moffat , Mike Moffat	41.675	41.723	1: 23.398
8th	AUT	Markus Schiegl , Tobias Schiegl	41.727	41,801	1: 23.528
9	ITA	Oswald Haselrieder , Gerhard Plankensteiner	41.789	41.860	1: 23.649
10	RUS	Vladimir Machnutin , Vladislav Yushakov	41.798	41.948	1: 23.746

Date: February 17, 2010, 5:00 p.m. (1st run), 6:30 p.m. (2nd run)

20 teams from 11 countries, all rated.

Web links

• Luge at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official results (PDF; 1.0 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zeit.de: Background: Speed ​​chase in Whistler from the beginning in criticism. Retrieved February 14, 2010 . 
2. ^ DiePresse.com: Olympia: Manuel Pfister fastest toboggan in the world. Retrieved February 14, 2010 . 
3. ↑ "The train is just brutal". Rheinische Post, February 13, 2010, accessed on July 9, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Toboggan gold for Loch, silver for Möller. February 16, 2010, accessed February 16, 2010 .