Sport of the Week – Olympic Luge (Winter)

Have you ever been sledding? Well, luge is a lot like that, except you’re going […]

Have you ever been sledding? Well, luge is a lot like that, except you’re going down the hill at eighty miles per hour in this little track that will slam you around if you’re not careful. Only the best make it to the Winter Olympics, and well, Germany appears to be the best. John and Geoff go over the history and current state of Luge in the Winter Olympics in this edition of Sport of the Week.

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Raw Notes Below:

Where/When did it start

Vikings invented it. Built big old luge sleds back in 800 AD
Luge is the French word for Toboggan
Introduced into Olympics in 1964, Innsbruck, Austria
Biggest difference between luge and skeleton is skeleton goes head first, luge goes feet first
1879: Davos, Switzerland, builds the first luge track.
1883: Switzerland hosts the first international sled race.
Reach above 80 mph
Manuel Pfister of Austria, reached a top speed of 154 km per hour (95.69 mph) on the track in Whistler, Canada prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Who plays it

Since weight is an advantage, male athletes must weigh at least 198 lbs (90 kg), and women must weigh at least 165 lbs (75 kg)

Events – Track length is between 6/10th mile and 9/10th mile

Men’s Singles

4 attempts, all times added up after day 2

Women’s Singles

4 attempts, all times added up after day 2

Doubles

Could be male/male, male/female, female/female
Two runs in one day

Team Relay

Women’s single, Men’s single, double
Woman goes, has to hit a button at the finish line which opens the gate and the man goes, hits to button, doubles go

Little flappy guy that hangs down

Introduced in 2014

Best Known for the sport

Germany – 75 medals (4 versions of their country – Germany, West Germany, East Germany, United Team of Germany)

Luge to Germany is really what baseball is to the U.S. in a lot of ways. A good example is they have elementary school championships,
Swept Sochi in all 4 categories

Italy – 17 total, 7 gold – still mostly ethnic Germans
Austria – 19 total, 5 gold
…US no gold, but 5 medals

Terms

Steels
Bridges
Runners and bow
Spiked gloves
delivery boys’ sleds

Fun Facts

Performance is timed to one thousandth of a second
US Team is sponsored by White Castle
No world records, as all tracks are different lengths
Finishing without the sled disqualifies you

Most Famous

Armin Zöggeler – Italy (2 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze) [Armeen Zoog uh lair]

only athlete to have won one medal in a single individual event in six Olympics (furthermore consecutive).

Georg Hackl – Germany (3 gold, 2 silver) [GAY-org

In 2002 went to Porsche to make his sled faster (got a silver)