Historic sixth gold for German lugers with relay win in Beijing

Berlin (dpa) – Lugers Natalie Geisenberger, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt became the first German athletes to win six Winter Olympic gold medals with a mixed relay win on Thursday at the Games in Beijing.

Germany completed the sweep of luge gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, clocking 3 minutes 03.406 seconds to set a new track record, but only in the last run with doubles pair Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt.

“It is just an amazing feeling, like a dream. This team is amazing,” Wendl said.

Silver medallists Austria put down a phenomenal challenge and were ahead of the German team after Beijing champions Geisenberger and Johannes Ludwig had completed their runs.

However, Wendl and Artl used their expertise to claim gold by only 0.08 second.

“We knew that our sled was fast, so we keept on pushing. We saw that the Austrians had good runs,” Wendl said.

Bronze went to Latvia, 0.948 second off the pace.

Austria’s Thomas Steu recognized he and team-mate Lorenz Koller did a small mistake but said they won silver, and didn’t lose gold. “It’s just incredible, it’s amazing. All my teammates, we did a great job,” Steu said.

Wendl and Artl had already topped the open doubles, while Geisenberger and Ludwig won gold in the women’s and men’s competitions respectively.

Speed skater Claudia Pechstein has five, but she still tops the overall German medal board with nine in total.

The gold is also the seventh Olympic medal for Geisenberger, who passes the great Armin Zöggeler of Italy as the most decorated luge athlete in the history of the Olympic Games.

“I’m just thankful for all these memories and all these feelings, it’s just amazing and feels so great,” Geisenberger said.

The mixed relay event was first added to the Olympic programme in 2014, with Germany winning gold in Sochi and Pyeongchang.