Luge at the 2014 Winter Olympics

The luge events of the 2014 Winter Olympics were held at the Sanki Sliding Centre in Rzhanaya Polyana which is approximately 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the host city of Sochi. The track, which was due to be built even if Sochi’s Olympic bid had been unsuccessful, was opened in 2012 and hosted its first major event, the finale of the 2012-13 World Cup series in February 2013. For the men’s event track was configured to measure 1365 metres with 19 curves and an average drop of 9.3%. For both the women’s and doubles events a lower starting point was used with the length of the track reduced by 40 metres and 2 curves.

While Germany had only moderate success at Sochi and missed out completely in some sports where they had regularly gathered in the past, luge was a major exception. Germany was so dominant in this sport that the main question was whether they could win all the events. As it turned out, defending champion Felix Loch in the men’s individual, the completely dominant Natalie Geisenberger in the women’s individual and the pairing of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt in the doubles won by considerable margins. For the first time a luge relay was introduced and, having all three gold medallists in their relay team, Germany completed the clean sweep. For good measure Germany also picked up a silver medal in the women’s event. Russia, with 2 silver medals, were the next placed nation with Austria, Latvia, Italy and the United States being the other nations to pick up the medals.