BEIJING, China – The best ever.
In most sports, such a title is a source of great debate. Not in luge for the ladies. And especially not after Tuesday’s performance, when Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger became the first to win Olympic competition three times, cementing her place in history as the best in her sport.
She clocked a combined time for all four runs at the Yanqing Sliding Center of three minutes, 53.454 seconds – 0.493 seconds ahead of silver medalist and teammate Anna Berreiter and 1.053 seconds ahead of Russian Olympic Committee bronze medalist Tatiana Ivanova.
Berreiter crossed the finish line in tears when she realized a medal would soon be around her neck. Ivanova was surrounded by happy teammates, some pulling out their phones to capture the moment.
They were fulfilled.
However, they were not the height of the best of the best.
Geisenberger, as has become her Olympic custom, wrapped herself in the German flag after leaving her sled, unable to hold back tears of joy.
Geisenberger’s track record is incomparable in the history of luge. No woman has more Olympic gold medals, no woman has more world championship gold medals, no woman has more World Cup victories. Proof of her dominance: she has a total of 52 World Cup victories, which is exactly the number that the other competitors present at the Games combine.
She joins German icon Georg Hackl – the men’s champion in 1992, 1994 and 1998 – as the only luge athlete to win three consecutive gold medals in the same event. Add to that a pair of team relay victories and Geisenberger already has five Olympic golds in his collection, with a sixth possibly soon as Germany will be heavy favorites to win when that event takes place on Thursday. .
British Columbian Trinity Ellis was the top Canadian with a 14th place finish, 3.410 seconds behind Geisenberger. Her teammates Natalie Corless and Makena Hodgson finished 16th and 17th respectively.
