Doubles, Open

The German pairing of Stefan Krauße and Jan Behrendt arrived in Lillehammer in prime position to retain their Olympic title though to do so would not be easy against Italian pairs, motivated by the disappointment of Lillehammer, and the Schiegl cousins of Austria, who had had an impressive World Cup season. Three teams emerged from the first run with realistic hopes of the Olympic title. As expected one was Krausse and Behrendt but they trailed the two Italian pairs. The Germans failed to produce a time to challenge the Italians on the final run so the championship became a domestic affair between four men from the Bolzano region of Northern Italy. First down the course were the Italy II pairing of Kurt Brugger and Wilfried Huber who trailed by just five hundreths of a second. Although their time was not as quick as their first run it proved too much for the senior pairing of Hansjörg Raffl and Wilfried’s brother, Norbert. Although Wilfried and Kurt Brugger had beaten Raffl and Norbert in World Cup races this was the first time they finished ahead of them in a major championship for five years. Of the four Huber brothers who appeared at the Winter Olympics only Arnold failed to claim a medal as he finished fourth in the singles event in Lillehammer.