2018 Winter Olympics: Luge Guide and Preview for PyeongChang
With the Winter Olympics nearly upon us, this is everything you need to know about luge.
There are four types of events—men's, women's, doubles and team relay—that take place between Feb. 10-15. A complete overview of the luge schedule in PyeongChang can be found here.
In December, SI published a Rookie’s Guide to luge with information about the event format, composition of the sled, how fast the athletes go, and more. Similar to bobsled, the most important part of luge comes right at the start. Medal winners are decided by hundredths of a second, so any miscalculation in the opening launch can derail any hopes of leaving the games with a medal.
The Rookie's Guide sheds light on each vital step of the start, in which lugers try to generate as much leverage as possible before shooting down the course at speeds that would get you ticketed on most highways.
A Rookie's Guide to Luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics
In the January 29-February 5 Olympic Preview issue of Sports Illustrated, our expert on the games, Brian Cazeneuve, gave his medal predictions. Here are his picks for luge:
MEN
Singles
- Gold: Felix Loch, Germany
- Silver: Wolfgang Kindl, Austria
- Bronze: Semen Pavlichenko, Russia
In 2010, Loch, then 20, became the youngest Olympic luge champ in history.
Doubles
- Gold: Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, Germany
- Silver: Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, Germany
- Bronze: Peter Penz and Georg Fischler, Austria
A German doubles team has won a medal in each Olympics since 1968.
WOMEN
Singles
- Gold: Natalie Geisenberger, Germany
- Silver: Dajana Eitberger, Germany
- Bronze: Summer Britcher, U.S.
German-speaking women have won 40 of 42 Olympic medals.
MIXED
Relay
- Gold: Germany
- Silver: Austria
- Bronze: Italy
The U.S. and Canada are medal contenders.
Check out Brian’s medal predictions for all 102 events in the magazine.
